1837 

KIMOX    COLLEGE 

FOUNDERS1    DAY 

1894 


REV.    GEORGE   W.    GALE,    D.    D. 


IE  IK: 


IN  COMMEMORATION  OF 


THE     FOUNDING 


OF 


HELD  IN 


GALESBURG,   ILLINOIS 


THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  THE  FIFTEENTH 


MDCCCXCIV. 


GALESBURG,    ILL.: 

THE   MAIL   PUBLISHING   CO. 

1894. 


"  WHO  THAT  LOVES  THE  SOUL  OF  MEN  CAN  LOOK  ON 
THIS  FIELD  AND  NOT  FEEL  HIS  HEART  AFFECTED,  AND  NOT 
TAX  HIS  ENERGIES  TO  THE  UTMOST,  AS  WELL  AS  OFFER 
HIS  MOST  FERVENT  PRAYERS  TO  THE  LORD  OF  THE  HAR- 
VEST, THAT  HE  WOULD  FURNISH  THE  LABORERS?  WHO 
THAT  LOVES  THE  INSTITUTIONS  OF  HIS  COUNTRY,  CAN 
LOOK  UPON  IT  WITHOUT  ALARM,  WHEN  HE  REFLECTS  THAT 
IN  A  FEW,  A  VERY  FEW  YEARS,  THEY  WILL  BE  IN  THE 
HANDS  OF  A  POPULATION  REARED  IN  THIS  FIELD  ;  AND 
REARED,  UNLESS  A  MIGHTY  EFFORT  BE  MADE  BY  EVAN- 
GELICAL CHRISTIANS,  UNDER  THE  FORMING  HAND  OF  THOSE 

WHO    ARE    NO    LESS    THE    ENEMIES     OF    CIVIL   LIBERTY,    THAN 

OF  A  PURE  GOSPEL?"  GEORGE  W.  GALE. 

(EXTRACT   FROM  "CIRCULAR   AND  PLAN"  1836.) 


37?. 7734? 


TO    THE 

MEMORY 

OF 

THE  FOUNDERS. 


Cb 

Cb 

^N. 
i> 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


The  public  exercises  in  celebration  of  the  fifty-seventh  anni- 
versary of  the  Founding  of  Knox  College  took  place  on  Thursday, 
February  15th,  1894-  The  morning  exercises  were  held  in  the 
Old  First  Church.  The  addresses  made  on  that  occasion,  mem- 
orable because  of  the  addresses,  will  be  found  within.  In  the 
afternoon  a  complimentary  entertainment  was  given  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church  by  the  Conservatory  of  Music  and  the 
Department  of  Elocution,  under  the  direction  of  Prof.  W.  F. 
Bentley,  the  Director  of  the  Conservatory,  and  Miss  Grace 
Chamberlain.  In  the  evening  an  address  was  delivered  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church  by  the  Hon.  George  R.  Peck,  of  Chicago. 
This  eloquent  and  inspiring  address  is  published  in  full  in  this 
brochure.  After  the  address  a  reception  was  given  in  the  par- 
lors of  the  church  by  the  Trustees  and  Faculty  of  the  College. 

The  addresses  are  published  by  order  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the. Board  of  Trustees. 


OF 

KHOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


MORNING  EXERCISES. 


OLD    FIRST   CHURCH 

10  O'CLOCK  A-  M- 


ME.  JOHN   H.  FINLEY,  Presiding. 


Music,  KNOX  COLLEGE  CADET  BAND 

Invocation,.  DR.  A.  F.   SHERRILL 

Greeting  from  the  City,  MAYOR  F.  F.  COOKE 

The  Founders,     -  HON.  W.  SELDEN  GALE 

Early  Days,  PROF.  GEORGE  CHURCHILL 

Sons  and  Daughters  of  Knox,  DR.  C.  W.  LEFFINGWELL 

(Rector  St.   Mary's  School.) 

Sisters  of  Knox,      -  DR.  JOHN  E.  BRADLEY 

(President   Illinois  College.) 

Song,  "Ave  Maria"— Faure,     -  MRS.  F.  J.  BENTLEY 

The  Mission  of  the  Christian  College,       -  REV.  WM.  S.  MARQUIS 

(Pastor  Presbyterian  Church,  Rock  Island.) 

The  College  and  the  Church,  REV.  C.  W.  HIATT 

(Pastor  First  Congregational  Church,  Peoria.) 

The  College  and  the  University,  DR.  ALBION  W.  SMALL 

(University  of  Chicago.) 

Song — "To  Sing  the  Praise  of  Dear  old  Knox"  STUDENTS 

The  Value  of  a  College  Education,  -      HON.  L.  S.  COFFIN 

The  Future  of  Our  College,       -  PROF.  ALBERT  HURD 

Founders'  Day  Hymn.     (Composed  by  Prof.  L.  S.  Pratt.) 
Benediction,  REV.  E.  G.  SMITH 

Music,  KNOX  COLLEGE  CADET  BAND 


AFTERNOON  EXERCISES. 


PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH 

2  O'CLOCK    P-  M- 


Complimentary   Entertainment    Given    by    the   Knox   Conservatory  of 

Music  and  the  Department  of  Elocution  to  the   Citizens  of 

Galesburg  and  the  Students  of  Knox   College. 


\     Petite  Suite  for  String  Orchestra,  George  Saint- George 

I.  Preludio.     II.  Allemanda.     III.  Sarabanda.     IV.  Minuetto  1st; 
Minuetto  2d.     V.  Bourree.     VI.  Giga. 

KNOX  CONSERVATORY  STRING  ORCHESTRA. 

2  SELECTION — From  Tennyson's  "  Idylls": 

Part  I — Gareth  at  the  Court  of  Arthur. 
Miss  GRACE  CHAMBERLAIN. 

3  SONG — "  Were  I  the  Streamlet,"  C.  Francis  Lloyd 

Miss  SARAH  L.  BARNDT. 

4  STRING  ORCHESTRA — (a)  Herzwunden,        \  r  . 

(b)  Der  Fruhliug,       j  *ieg 

5  ORGAN  SOLO — Concert  theme,  with  variations  in  G,       -        Guilmant 

PROF.  F.  W.  MUELLER. 

6  SONG — Doris  (a  Pastorale) ,  Ethelbert  Nemn 

(Accompaniment  for  Piano,  Violin  and  "  Cello," 
Miss  FLORENCE  J.  LEE. 

7  SELECTION — Part  II. — Gareth's  Quests. 

Miss  CHAMBERLAIN. 

8  STRING  ORCHESTRA — Intermezzo  from  Cavalleria  Rusticana, 

Mascagni 
(Organ  Accompaniment.) 


— (coitr.) 


EVENING  EXERCISES, 


PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH 

8  O'CLOCK   P.  M. 


HON.  CLARK  E.  CARE,  Presiding. 


ORGAN  SOLO — "Festival  March,"  Henry   Smart 

PROF.  F.  W.  MUELLER. 

INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS,  HON.  CLARK  E.  CARR 

ADDRESS,  HON.  GEORGE  R.  PECK 

"THE  KINGDOM  OF  LIGHT." 


"Zt  is  a  fortunate  thing  for  this  institution  that  it  is  located  in  a  region  to 
which  nature,  has  given  her  kindliest  smiles;  a  land  of  meadow  and  of  garden,  and 
of  goodly  people  living  in  goodly  homes.  *  *  *  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the 
subtle  law  of  heredity  has  played  a  powerful  part  in  the  success  which  has  hitherto 
attended  the  work  of  Knox  College.  *  *  *  Tlie  iron  which  was  in  the  blood  of 
the  pioneers  gives  tone  and  vigor  to  the  students  of  to-day.  *  *  *  What  Knox  will 
do  in  the  future  depends  upon  the  character  of  the  teachers  who  fill  the  chairs, 
but,  after  all,  the  students  themselves  must  set  the  mark  of  the  institution." 

(Col.  George  R.  Peck,  in  Founder's  Day  Address.) 


I  would  give  more  for  the  ideals,  the  purposes 
of  the  men  and  women  whose  lives  have  gone 
into  the  structure  of  this  College  than  for  all 
the  libraries  that  wealth  can  buy. 

(Dr.  Small,  in  Founders'  Day  Address.) 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY, 


At  half  past  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  Founders'  Day  the  trus- 
tees of  the  college,  the  guests  of  the  day,  the  faculty  and  the  students 
formed  a  line  at  Alumni  Hall  and  marched  across  the  park  to  the 
Old  First  Church,  the  college  cadet  band  leading  the  march  with  music, 
the  classes  challenging  one  another  with  the  college  yell  arid  displaying 
flags  and  streamers  of  purple  and  old  gold.  The  "Old  First"  was  filled; 
the  students  on  one  side  of  the  house,  the  townspeople  and  other  friends 
on  the  other  side.  The  stage  was  tastefully  decorated  and  an  oil  paint- 
ing of  General  Knox,  loaned  by  Mrs.  F.  C.  Rice,  a  great-grand  daughter, 
hung  at  one  side.  The  cadet  band  played  an  overture,  after  which  the 
chairman,  President  Finley,  spoke  a  few  words  of  welcome  to  those 
who  had  come  to  celebrate  the  day  with  the  faculty  and  students,  and 
said:  "When  the  Legislature  at  Vandalia  was  voting  on  this  day, 
fifty-seven  years  ago,  to  charter  Knox  College,  the  colonists  at  "Log 
City"  were  taking  the  first  steps  toward  the  organization  of  a  church, 
the  church  under  whose  ample  roof  we  are  met  today.  This  is,  then, 
the  birthday,  too,  of  this  church.  It  is  fitting,  therefore,  that  the  first 
voice  raised  this  morning  in  thanksgiving  for  the  past  should  be  that  of 
the  pastor  of  this  old  church,  which  has  been  so  closely  associated  with 
the  college  in  the  memory  of  her  students.  Dr.  A.  F.  Sherrill  will  lead 
us  in  prayer  to  the  God  who  led  our  fathers  to  these  prairies." 

PRAYER  BY  REV.  A.  F.  SHERRILL,  D.  D. 

O  Lord  our  God,  our  fathers  trusted  in  Thee  and  were  not  ashamed. 
They  came  here  and  builded  well.  They  placed  the  college  and 
church  side  by  side — they  fostered  good  industries.  They  laid  broad 
and  deep  foundations  for  good  society,  for  true  and  enduring  welfare. 
We  thank  thee  for  them  and  their  labors  into  which,  we  enter;  may  we 


10  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


follow  their  good  example.  May  thy  blessing  be  upon  us  as  we  come 
together  on  this  Founders'  Day,  and  into  this  house  hallowed  by  scenes 
and  memories  of  the  past.  Make  all  hearts  glad  while  the  sky  and  nat- 
ural world  around  us  are  telling  of  thy  glory.  May  the  special  object 
which  has  called  us  together  be  accomplished.  May  we  see  and  realize 
the  critical  time  which  has  come  to  our  beloved  college;  may  we  call  it 
our  opportunity,  and  may  many  hearts  be  quickened  to  new  interest  and 
to  genennis  giving,  so  that  this  noble  institution  of  Christian  learning 
shall  not  be  divided  in  its  works  but  gain  large  means  of  power  and  use- 
fulness. May  old  friends  remain  and  be  strong;  may  new  ones  be  add- 
ed, and  from  this  hour  may  there  date  new  interest,  enthusiasm,  devo- 
tion, which  shall  only  increase  with  the  growing  years.  And  may  all 
the  learning,  all  the  money,  all  the  lives,  be  consecrated  to  the  good  of 
one  another  and  to  the  glory  of  thy  great  name.  Amen. 

The  Chairman:  This  day  is  the  birthday  not  only  of  the  college 
and  the  church  but  also  of  the  city  of  Galesburg.  To  plant  here  on  the 
prairies  a  Christian  institution  of  learning  was  the  object  foremost 
in  the  minds  and  the  plans  of  the  colonists.  Around  this  college  the 
town  was  planted  and  so  the  "College  City"  may  well  celebrate  with  us 
this  day.  I  regret,  and  I  bring  the  regrets  of  the  present  Mayor  of  our 
beautiful  city,  that  he  cannot  himself  give  the  greeting  of  the  citizens 
of  Galesburg,  but  the  presence  of  so  many  of  you  here  this  morning 
with  our  students  and  your  interest  in  the  growth  of  the  college,  express- 
ed in  many  and  helpful  ways,  give  evidence  of  the  cordiality  of  the 
greeting  you  have  in  your  hearts  for  the  institution  which  is  walled  in  by 
your  houses  and  shops — We  are  gathered  to-day  to  pay  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  those  who  gave  usKnox  College — the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  our 
little  community,  and  I  know  of  no  one  who  could  more  fittingly  speak 
the  first  words  than  the  son  of  its  founder,  the  "first  citizen"  of  Galesburg 
to-day — the  Hon.  W.  Selden  Gale,  whom  I  now  have  the  pleasure  and 
honor  of  introducing  to  you.  He  will  speak  concerning 

"THE  FOUNDERS  OF  KNOX." 

Mr.   Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

The  germ  from  which  Knox  College  grew  may  be  found  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Western,  Oneida  county,  N.  Y.,  in  the  year  1825.  George  W. 
Gale  was  born  in  1789.  He  was  the  son  of  one  of  those  men  who  in  co- 
lonial times  crossed  the  Connecticut  border  to  occupy  the  land  between 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  11 


New  England  and  the  Dutch  settlements  on  the  Hudson.  At  the  time 
of  his  birth  that  emigration  had  passed  up  the  great  river  of  New  Eng- 
land to  New  Connecticut,  as  they  called  it,  and  founded  the  State  of 
Vermont.  Connecticut  men  had  begun  to  settle  the  country  above  the 
Dutch  settlements  on  the  Mohawk.  Hugh  White  and  his  sons  had  just 
begun  to  clear  the  forests  for  Whitesboro',  the  oldest  village  in  the  west- 
ern half  of  New  York,  the  cradle  of  Knox  College.  Mr.  Gale,  an  orphan 
at  an  early  age,  affectionately  cared  for  by  older  sisters,  the  wives  of 
thrifty  farmers,  trained  to  habits  of  industry  and  given  such  advantages 
of  education  as  were  available,  graduated  from  the  college  and  the  theo- 
logical seminary  which  New  England  men  had  founded  in  Schenectady  and 
Princeton.  After  being  licensed  to  preach,  his  first  mission  was  to  the  new 
settlements  near  Lake  Ontario;  his  first  settlement,  at  what  was  then  the 
thriving  town  and  is  now  the  pretty  village  of  Adams;  his  parishioners 
enterprising  villagers  and  energetic  farmers.  At  thirty-five  years  of  age, 
to  his  great  disappointment  and  the  regret  of  those  he  served,  who  loved 
him, his  health  gave  way.  Compelled  to  abandon  his  profession — he  feared 
forever — he  found  a  retreat  in  a  small  village  on  an  estate  belonging  to  a 
lawyer  who  had  left  it  for  a  time;  a  beautiful  situation,  a  few  acres  of 
land,  and,  in  the  old  style  of  the  professional  man's  establishment,  an  office 
on  the  street  at  the  foot  of  the  lawn. 

With  habits  formed  in  an  education  by  those  to  whom  idleness  was 
reckoned  a  crime,  he  could  not  be  without  occupation,  and  soon  he  had 
half  a  dozen  students  for  the  ministry  about  him.  They  .read  his  books, 
they  came  to  his  table,  they  worked  his  land.  Two  years  he  spent  in 
Western.  '  It  was  at  that  time  that  the  great  religious  revival  swept  like  a 
prairie  fire  over  central  and  western  New  York.  It  brought  to  the  sur- 
face the  so  well  known  Charles  G.  Finney,  who  dropped  the  law  for  the 
gospel  while  chorister  in  Mr.  Gale's  church  at  Adams,  and  got  his 
first  theological  reading  in  Mr.  Gale's  library. 

Mr.  Gale  left  Western  with  some  ideas.  Sharing,  though  with  his 
characteristic  moderation,  in  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  the  day,  he 
deeply  felt  the  want  of  educated  ministers  to  provide  for  the  new  con- 
gregations in  the  growing  country.  The  young  men  on  the  farms  and 
in  the  shops  who,  by  natural  talents,  were  well  adapted  to  the  min- 
istry— for  these  he  wished  to  provide  better  educational  facilities. 
He  attributed  his  loss  of  health  to  the  change  of  habits,  going 
from  active  life  on  the  farm  to  the  sedentary  life  of  a  student — a  danger 
which  he  thought  should  be  carefully  guarded  against.  Athletic  games 


12  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


and  exercises  might  have  seemed  a  wasteful  misuse  of  time  and  strength 
to  one  trained  to  think  all  time  must  be  profitably  or  usefully  spent.  He 
thought  a  college  might  be  established  where  the  students  could  be  pro- 
vided with  labor  for  a  portion  of  each  day,  securing  the  necessary  health- 
ful exercise  and  help  to  pay  their  way. 

There  were  in  that  day  few  men  of  wealth,  as  wealth  is  estimated 
now,  but  there  were  men  well-to-do,  enterprising  and  religious.  Able  to 
gain  the  confidence  of  such  men,  by  personal  solicitations  Mr.  Gale  collect- 
ed enough  money  to  buy  100  acres  of  land,  to  erect  buildings  with  suitable 
rooms  for  college  exercises,  dormitories — then  a  necessary  part  of  college 
outfit — for  100  students;  various  other  buildings;  some  books  and  appa- 
ratus, and  some  endowment  for  professors.  The  students  in  classes, 
with  monitors  chosen  by  themselves,  were  employed  three  hours  each 
day  in  farming  or  gardening,  except  some  who  had  trades,  for  whom 
shops  were  provided.  Three  hours'  work  paid  for  board  and  room-rent. 
The  government  was  a  regular  democracy — the  monitors  in  meeting 
managed  affairs,  with  little  oversight  by  the  faculty.  Young  men  com- 
ing from  farms  and  shops  and  some  from  wealthy  parents  who  liked  the 
system,  brought  together  under  the  religious  excitement  that  prevailed 
and  the  temperance  and  abolition  excitement  that  followed,  were  gener- 
ally more  mature  than  usual  in  college,  and  I  will  venture  to  say  that  no 
greater  amount  of  either  enthusiasm  or  brains  was  ever  brought  together 
in  any  college  with  equal  numbers.  As  a  training  school  for  debaters  it 
was  unequaled.  Its  most  brilliant  specimen  was  Theodore  D.  Weld. 

Mr.  Gale  never  intended  to  spend  his  life  teaching.  He  got  the  in- 
stitution to  running  so  it  paid  its  expenses,  and  having  secured  good 
hands,  as  he  thought,  to  leave  it  in,  he  retired  after  six  years' connection. 
At  that  time  the  westward  movement  of  population  continued  with  ac- 
celerated force.  The  favorite  field  with  New  Yorkers  was  Michigan. 
Mr.  Gale  had  developed  more  ideas.  In  the  west  where  land  had  but  a 
nominal  cost,  the  outfit  for  a  manual  labor  college  would  be  greatly  re- 
duced. The  west  was  the  coming  field;  it  would  be  well  to  prepare  for 
the  work  on  the  ground  where  the  work  was  to  be  done.  He  had  seen 
all  his  life  land  advancing  in  value  with  increase  of  population.  He 
saw  in  that  the  means  of  college  endowment.  He  thought  the  advance 
might  be  greatly  hastened  if  settlers  would  move  in  a  body,  taking  with 
them  what  made  the  difference  between  an  old  settlement  and  a  new.  If 
land,  he  said,  is  •worth  |1. 25  per  acre  where  settlements  are  sparse,  it 
will  be  worth  at  least  $5.00  per  acre  with  schools,  churches  and  good  so- 


REV.    HIRAM    H.    KELLOGG,    D.    D. 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  13 


ciety.  His  plan  was  to  secure  the  settlers,  purchase  a  township  of  gov- 
ernment land  at  $1.25,  parcel  it  out  to  the  settlers  at  $5.00  and  with  the 
profits  establish  the  schools.  Such  attractions  would  draw  together  those 
who  could  appreciate  them.  Before  he  left  the  Oneida  Institute,  I  have 
seen  in  his  study  plans  of  a  township  and  village  in  Michigan.  After 
leaving  the  Institute  much  of  his  time  was  devoted  to  correspondence, 
visiting  friends  who  would  sympathize  with  him,  or  might  take  part  in 
such  work.  He  knew  what  making  a  farm  in  heavily  timbered  lands  in- 
volved, and  reflection  and  examination  satisfied  him  that  in  the  prairies 
of  northern  Illinois  there  was  a  fairer  field  than  even  the  beautiful  oak 
openings  of  Michigan.  He  found  ready  co-operation  in  his  associates  in 
the  Presbytery.  The  most  active  and  efficient  assistance  came  from 
Rev.  Hiram  H.  Kellogg,  who  had  established  a  ladies'  seminary,  in  some 
respects  a  counterpart  of  the  Oneida  Institute,  and  who  afterward  became 
the  first  president  of  Knox  College.  At  the  close  of  1834  the  plan  had 
been  developed  and  a  subscription  begun.  Among  the  first  to  join  was 
one  who  became  the  backbone  of  the  enterprise — Silvanus  Ferris.  A 
personal  friend  and  by  marriage  a  relation  of  Mr.  Gale,  forty  years  before, 
with  his  axe  and  little  wealth  besides,  with  a  lovely  young  wife  (I  knew 
her  when  she  was  no  longer  young — what  she  was  in  her  girlhood  those 
still  older  than  she  have  told  me),  he  passed  White's  settlement,  where 
Whitesboro'  was  to  be,  and  cut  out  of  the  dense  forest  his  farm.  There 
he  was  a  pioneer  in  that  cheese  industry  that  has  spread  from  the  town 
of  Norway  over  the  counties  around.  With  marvelous  industry  he  had 
acquired  a  handsome  property,  when,  at  sixty-four,  with  the  buoy- 
ancy of  youth,  he  joined  the  expedition,  and  for  twenty-five  years  was 
one  of  the  chief  builders  of  the  college.  May  6th,  1835,  at  the  Presby- 
terian church  in  Rome,  the  subscribers  to  Mr.  Gale's  plan  met  and  or- 
ganized, appointed  a  managing  committee,  and  Mr.  Gale  general  agent. 
Nehemiah  West,  Thomas  Gilbert  and  Timothy  B.  Jarvis  were  appointed 
a  committee,  instructed  to  explore  Indiana  and  Illinois  between  the  40th 
and  42nd  degrees  of  latitude  and  to  find  a  suitable  location  where  an  entire 
township  of  government  land  might  be  procured.  The  committee  re- 
ported that  they  had  not  been  able  to  find  a  suitable  location,  and,  as  land 
was  being  rapidly  taken  up  advised  that  a  committee  be  sent  out 
with  funds  to  buy  a  half  township,  as  soon  as  one  could  be  found.  Mr. 
Gilbert  bought  for  himself  land  two  miles  south  of  Knoxville  and  re- 
ported that  half  a  township  might  be  had  there.  The  report  was  dis- 
couraging; the  amount  of  land  in  half  a  township  seemed  too  small  to  • 


14  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


effect  what  was  desired,  but  at  a  meeting  held  August  19,  1835,  Mr. 
Gale,  Mr.  Ferris,  Mr.  West  and  Mr.  Simmons  were  directed  to  proceed, 
find  and  purchase  half  a  township,  and  were  provided  with  funds  for  the 
purpose.  The  committee,  except  Mr.  Gale,  who  wae  left  sick  at  De- 
troit, went  to  Knoxville  as  advised  by  Mr.  Gilbert.  They  stopped  with 
Dr.  Hansford,  the  veteran  pioneer,  the  first  physician  settled  in  Knox 
county,  and  at  that  time  the  proprietor  of  half  the  town  plat  of  Knox- 
ville. Learning  their  errand,  he  proposed  to  show  them  all  the  land 
they  wanted,  and  lying  between  Knoxville  and  Henderson  Grove  they 
found  as  fair  a  prairie  as  the  sun  shone  on.  Their  satisfaction  was  min- 
gled with  regret  when  they  found  they  might  have  had  the  full  comple- 
ment of  land  if  they  had  come  prepared.  On  the  7th  of  January,  1836, 
the  subscribers'  meeting  at  Whitesboro  received  the  committee's  report. 
They  approved  a  plan  laying  out  the  purchase — the  town  plat  in  the 
center  and  lands  adjoining  reserved  for  the  college.  The  remaining 
lands  were  appraised  at  from  $3  to  $8,  according  to  location,  averaging 
$5.  Each  made  his  selection,  bidding  for  choice  when  there  was  compe- 
tition. The  proceeds  of  sales,  it  was  agreed,  should  first  cover  the  ex- 
pense of  purchasing;  the  remainder,  with  all  lands  unsold,  to  be  conveyed 
to  the  college  when  incorporated,  meantime  remaining  with  the  commit- 
tee in  trust. 

In  the  spring  of  1836  the  colonists  began  to  arrive  at  the  purchase. 
With  them  came  friends,  who,  pleased  with  the  scheme,  joined  in. 
Others  came  in  from  New  York,  and  a  company  from  Vermont,  headed 
by  Matthew  Chambers  and  Erastus  Swift,  looking  for  homes  in  the  west, 
were  attracted  to  the  colony  and  became  part  of  it.  The  first  settlers 
found  shelter  at  Henderson  Grove;  some  in  the  cabins  of  the  settlers, 
who  within  the  seven  years  before  had  lined  the  Grove  with  a  tier  of 
farms;  some  erected  cabins  on  colony  land  at  the  Grove. 

On  the  15th  day  of  February,  1837,  the  charter  of  Knox  College 
was  granted. 

Before  the  close  of  1836  about  forty  families  connected  with  the 
colony  had  arrived;  the  Presbyterian  church  was  organized  in  a  small 
building  erected  for  the  purpose.  Prof.  Losey  opened  a  school,  the  real 
beginning  of  Knox  College;  and  here  let  me  mention  the  good  fortune 
of  Knox  College  and  Galesburg,  that  among  the  men  brought  to  Oneida 
Institute  by  Mr.  Gale  and  who  followed  him  to  Galesburg,  were  two 
men,  accomplished  scholars  and  teachers  of  great  ability,  who  gave  the 
college  its  original  form  and  prestige  and  impressed  upon  it  the  charac- 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY,  15 


teristics  that  have  marked  it  in  all  its  history — Nehemiah  H.  Losey  and 
Inness  Grant;  one  a  graduate  of  Middlebury,  the  other  of  Aberdeen. 
Mr.  Losey  came  in  1836  as  teacher,  surveyor,  accountant;  his  services  were 
indispensable.  Prof.  Grant  came  when  the  college  needed  a  professor 
of  languages.  In  1836  the  building  of  Galesburg  on  the  prairie  began. 
The  school  was  opened  never  to  be  closed.  In  1846,  in  this  house,  then 
unfinished,  was  graduated  the  first  senior  class  of  Knox  College. 

I  will  not  go  further.  I  have  followed  the  founders  of  the  college. 
It  is  to  their  credit  that  they  laid  so  firm  a  foundation  on  which  so  fair  a 
fabric  has  been  raised.  At  the  very  outset  the  character  of  the  founders 
drew  to  them  co-workers  of  like  principles  and  tastes.  The  institutions 
they  founded  which  they  and  their  associates  have  built,  have  continued  to 
draw  those  who  can  appreciate  such  institutions.  That  influence  will 
continue;  the  characteristics  will  be  permanent;  Knox  College  will  be 
surrounded  by  a  cultured  people. 

The  Chairman:  We  have  among  our  faculty  several  immortals; 
men  whose  memories  will  never  die  at  Knox.  One  of  these  is  Professor 
George  Churchill,  Emperor  of  all  the  "Preps,"  and  King  of  all  our  hearts. 
Though  he  seems  as  young  as  any  of  us,  he  has  a  memory  and 
experience  which  cover  the  whole  history  of  Galesburg  and  of  Knox 
College.  He  will  tell  us  of  the  "good  old  days." 

"EARLY  DAYS." 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,   Citizens  and  Students: 

With  a  plan  so  wisely  and  carefully  prepared,  in  the  hands  of  men 
chosen  for  their  peculiar  adaptation  to  their  several  duties,  and  all  in- 
spired with  the  grand  purpose  of  planting  Christian  educational  institu- 
tions to  aid  in  shaping  the  character  of  the  coming  empire  of  the  "far 
west,"  success  seemed  inevitable,  and  success  did  come,  but  through  con- 
tinuous years  of  hard  labor  by  the  founders,  teachers  and  the  entire 
band  of  colonists  who  had  been  drawn  hither  by  their  faith  in  the  plan, 
their  desire  to  aid  in  its  prosecution  and  their  hope  of  participation  in 
the  benefits  arising  from  its  accomplishment.  Log  City  was  the  tem- 
porary home  of  the  colonists  and  its  name  indicates  the  primitive  char- 
acter of  their  dwellings.  It  was  built  in  the  grove  three  miles  north- 
west from  the  college  site.  As  soon  as  these  shelters  were  built  a  meet- 
ing house  of  "shakes"  was  erected,  in  which  to  have  a  school  on  work 


16  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS1  DAY. 


days  and  a  place  for  worship  on  Sundays.  In  this  meeting  house,  during 
the  first  winter,  was  held  a  series  of  meetings  that  resulted  in  the  conver- 
sion of  most  of  the  young  f  Mks  in  the  colony.  At  the  close  of  these 
meetings,  on  February  15,  1837,  just  fifty-seven  years  ago  to-day,  the  col- 
onists held  a  meeting  to  organize  a  church,  and  on  the  same  day  the 
state  legislature  in  Vandalia,  then  the  capital  of  the  state,  granted  a 
charter  to  Knox  College.  So  the  college  and  the  church  were  born  on 
the  same  day — were  twins,  and  in  their  early  history  they  were  one  and 
inseparable,  devoted  to  a  common  cause,  laboring  for  each  other,  shar- 
ing the  common  burdens  and  rejoicing  together  over  the  common  suc- 
cesses. In  spite  of  the  hard  times  caused  by  the  panic  of  1837,  the  colo- 
nists one  after  another  moved  out  upon  the  prairie  and  built  houses. 
The  prairie  upon  which  the  city  stands  was  a  typical  prairie,  a  thing  of 
beauty  which  none  but  those  who  have  actually  seen  a  virgin  prairie  in 
all  its  changing  dress  of  green,  its  moods  of  sunshine  and  shades  as  the 
clouds  pass  over  its»surface,  can  fully  appreciate.  When  the  village  had 
been  laid  out  and  the  site  of  the  college  determined,  a  few  of  the  found- 
ers met  upon  the  site  and  with  uncovered  heads  knelt  down,  and  the 
oldest  one  of  the  group,  with  his  long,  white  hair  streaming  in  the  wind, 
gave  thanks  to  God,  and  with  impassioned  earnestness,  dedicated  the 
beautiful  prairie,  the  village,  and  the  college  the  center  of  all,  to  the 
Lord. 

I  fully  believe  that  prayer  was  heard  and  the  dedication  accepted  by 
the  Lord,  for  the  enterprise  grew  apace,  the  village  grew,  new  colonists 
came  and  in  November,  1838,  the  college  was  at  home  for  the  first  time 
in  its  first  building,  now  familiarly  called  "The  Old  Academy",  which 
stood  just  where  the  First  National  Bank  now  stands,  and  is  now  the 
residence  of  Mr.  A.  Nelson,  the  second  house  north  of  the  bank.  This 
building  was  shared  by  college  and  church  alike,  and  was  the  place 
where  the  colonists  were  wont  to  assemble  to  hear  passing  lectur- 
ers, and  to  discuss  all  the  great  reforms  of  the  day,  for  they  were 
leaders  in  the  anti-slavery  movement,  in  the  temperance  cause,  in  the 
work  of  missions  at  home  and  abroad,  and  all  other  causes  in  keeping 
with  their  great  plan  of  helping  to  shape  for  good  the  character  of  the 
coming  western  empire.  From  the  first  occupancy  of  their  building,  re- 
vival followed  revival,  in  which  church  and  college  alike  were  equal  act- 
ors and  equal  recipients  of  the  attendant  blessings,  until  the  building 
seemed  the  very  gate  of  heaven  to  the  many  who,  within  its  walls,  had 
first  felt  the  grace  of  God  in  their  hearts. 


PROFESSOR    NEHEMIAH    H.    LOSEY. 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  17 


The  atmosphere  was  a  safe  one  for  young  people  to  live  in  and  for 
all,  both  young  and  old,  to  breathe,  to  enjoy,  and  to  grow  better  in. 
Strangers  in  the  place  at  once  felt  the  presence  of  something  that  inspired 
all  that  was  good  in  them  and  repressed  all  that  was  evil.  A  story  is 
told  of  a  man,  who,  passing  through  the  village  in  the  stage  and  being 
much  pleased  with  everything  around  him,  asked  the  driver  what  kind  of 
a  place  this  was,  and  the  man  answered  that  it  was  such  a  place  that  he 
did  not  dare  to  swear  at  his  horses  anywhere  in  sight  of  it. 

As  I  call  up  my  boyhood  memories  of  the  first  few  years  of  the 
school,  one  man  stands  in  the  forefront  as  the  real  presiding  genius  of 
the  school  and  that  man  was  Prof.  N.  H.  Losey.  He  was  an  "all  'round 
man,"  good  in  everything;  could  teach  Greek  and  Latin  if  necessary, 
was  thoroughly  at  home  in  mathematics,  quick  and  accurate  in  his  calcu- 
lations, remarkably  clear  and  concise  in  his  explanations,  showing  up 
the  curiosities  and  mysteries  of  mathematics  in  such  a  way  as  to  arouse 
all  the  enthusiasm  there  was  in  his  pupils.  I  think  it  is  especially  due  to 
Prof.  N.  H.  Losey  that  Knox  College  has  from  the  first  taken  high  rank 
in  its  teaching  of  mathematics.  But  not  in  this  line  was  Prof.  Losey's 
great  power  during  the  first  few  years  of  the  school;  it  was  rather  in 
physics  and  chemistry  that  he  excelled.  With  almost  no  apparatus  to 
begin  with,  in  a  short  time  he  had  constructed  such  laboratory  appliances 
as  to  enable  him  to  show  off  the  wonders  of  those  sciences  in  such  a  way 
as  to  attract  large  numbers  of  scholars  from  the  surrounding  country. 
He  was  as  truly  the  wizard  of  Knox  College  at  that  time  as  is  Edison  the 
wizard  of  Menlo  Park  today.  When  he  lectured  on  chemistry  not  only 
the  students  and  the  colonists  were  attentive  listeners,  but  the  people^f  rom 
the  groves  round  about  came  for  miles  and  gazed  with  wonder  and  admi- 
ration at  his  experiments  with  electricity,  olefiant  gas,  laughing  gas,  and 
magic  lantern  shows  of  things  comical  and  instructive.  Then,  too,  he 
was  a  good  organizer,  a  strict  disciplinarian,  a  good  manager  and  always 
a  true  gentleman. 

I  have  spoken  of  Prof.  Losey  as  one  whose  life  and  labors  had  great 
influence  in  giving  a  decided  character  for  good  to  the  school.  In  this 
line  the  name  of  Prof.  Inness  Grant  should  always  be  associated  with 
that  of  Prof.  Losey;  not  that  the  two  men  were  alike,  for  they  were  to- 
tally unlike,  and  yet  each  had  the  power  to  inspire  and  lead  young  men 
into  their  respective  fields  of  study.  Prof.  Grant  was  a  Scotchman,  pos- 
sessing to  the  full  all  the  sterling  virtues  of  his  nature,  quaint  in  his  lan- 
guage, always  saying  just  what  he  meant  and  saying  it  so  that  the  hearer 


18  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY, 


had  no  trouble  in  understanding  the  pith  of  the  matter;  a  man  with  pro- 
found convictions  on  the  great  questions  of  the  day  and  fearless  in  the 
expression  of  these  opinions.  He  despised  men  of  mere  pretense  but 
admired  those  who  lived  and  acted  under  a  true  devotion  to  duty.  His 
ringing  speeches  to  the  students  to  work  because  it  was  their  duty  to 
themselves,  to  their  parents,  to  their  friends  and  to  God,  inspired  hun- 
dreds of  them  and  made  them  nobler  and  better  men. 

I  never  pass  by  the  "Old  Academy"  without  a  flood  of  memories  of 
the  early  days  coming  over  me,  and  I  often  wonder  if  the  members  of 
the  family  now  occupying  it  as  a  residence  do  not  sometimes,  in  the 
stillness  of  the  night,  when  the  ghosts  of  the  departed  are  flitting  through 
the  rooms,  hear  the  walls  echoing  the  orthodox  sermons,  the  eloquent 
anti-slavery  speeches,  the  sound  advice  given  to  students,  the  eloquent 
orations  of  the  upper  classmen  and  the  still  more  eloquent  declamations 
of  the  lower  classmen,  to  say  nothing  of  the  incipient  efforts  of  "prep, 
dom,"  with  which  the  walls  and  ceiling  of  the  house  must  be  thoroughly 
charged . 

Early  in  the  "forties"  the  Old  Academy  became  too  small  to  accom- 
modate the  audiences  that  gathered  to  hear  the  college  exhibitions,  lec- 
tures or  other  entertainments,  as  well  as  the  congregations  on  the  Sab- 
bath. Hence,  college,  church  and  citizens  determined  to  provide  a 
building  that  should  be  ample  for  all  such  gatherings,  and  especially  for 
the  college  commencements  that  would  soon  put  in  an  appearance.  The 
outcome  of  this  determination  was  this  church  building  in  which  we  are 
to-day  assembled — at  that  time  the  largest  audience  room  in  the  state  out- 
side of  Chicago.  The  first  audience  ever  assembled  in  the  building  was 
at  the  first  commencement  of  Knox  College,  in  June,  1846,  when  nine 
young  men  were  graduated:  Bush,  Davis,  Hitchcock,  Holyoke,  Leonard, 
Martin,  Olney,  Richardson  and  Smith  were  the  immortal  nine;  men  good 
and  true,  who  have  done  grand  work  in  three  continents.  Five  of 
them  have  gone  to  their  reward  and  four  remain,  whose  faces  are  often 
seen  at  the  annual  commencement  exercises  of  the  college. 

The  day  was  a  great  one  for  Galesburg.  All  rejoiced;  founders,  fac- 
ulty, students  and  citizens,  for  they  were  sending  out  their  first  corps  of 
trained  men  to  fight  life's  battles,  and  from  that  day  until  now  Knox  has 
not  failed  to  add  its  annual  companies  of  young  men,  armed  and  equipped 
to  do  good  work  in  the  world. 

For  many  years  this  old  building  was  the  place  where  all  assemblies 
of  the  people,  religious,  educational  or  political  were  held.  Here  sang 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  19 


the  Hutchinsons  and  the  Alleghanians;  here  lectured  the  most  distin- 
guished platform  orators  of  America  invited  to  Galesburg  by  the  students, 
and  here  during  the  civil  war  Chaplain  McCabe  and  others  equally  elo- 
quent made  speeches  that  still  ring  in  the  ears  of  those  who  heard  them. 

This  evening  you  will  be  called  into  another  church,  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  in  this  part  of  Illinois,  which  will  show  what  an  influence 
Knox  College  has  had  in  educating  the  community  architecturally. 

I  have  been  more  or  less  intimately  connected  with  the  College  from 
its  very  beginning.  I  as  a  lad  of  ten  years  was  a  pupil  in  the  first  year 
of  the  school  and  am  now  in  my  thirty-ninth  year  of  consecutive  service 
as  an  instructor.  My  life  has  been  spent  in  the  school  and  I  am  proud 
of  it.  And  now  as  I  am  going  toward  the  sunset  of  life,  I  am  constrained 
to  look  backward  and  review  the  scenes  in  which  I  have  been  a  partici- 
pant. I  go  back  to  the  wild  prairie,  beautiful  in  its  summer  suns;  I  see 
the  billows  of  flame  roll  over  its  surface  as  the  fire  licks  up  the  dry  grass; 
I  see  the  works  of  man  covering  the  surface  of  the  country;  the  growing 
crops  and  trees;  the  houses  dropping  down  and  taking  on  the  cozy  look 
of  the  New  England  homes;  th«  little  community  transforming  itself  into 
a  village  and  then  into  a  small  city,  connected  with  other  cities  by  nerves 
of  wire  and  bands  of  steel,  and  all  these  signs  of  thrift  and  comfort  gath- 
ered around  the  college  and  largely  its  product;  then,  too,  I  see  a  long 
procession  of  young  people  coming  up  from  all  parts  of  the  land,  that 
they  may  drink  deeply  of  the  waters  of  the  Pierian  spring  and  go  forth 
to  all  quarters  of  the  earth  to  give  to  others  what  they  have  received 
here.  The  vision  is  an  inspiring  one  and  a  satisfactory  one.  I  wish  you 
could  all  see  what  I  now  see  as  I  close  my  eyes  and  dream  of  the  past 
of  Knox  College.  May  its  future  be  as  bright  as  the  wishes  of  its  found- 
ers and  builders  ever  desired  it  to  be. 

The  Chairman:  Knox  has  sons  and  daughters  now,  almost  a 
thousand,  young  and  old,  and  she  is  fond  and  proud  of  them.  For  this 
great  family  of  children,  children  some  of  them  with  gray  heads,  one  of 
them,  beloved  of  the  mother  and  kept  near  her,  will  speak  to-day,  the 
Rev.  C.  W.  Leffingwell,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  St.  Mary's  School,  Knoxville,  111., 
and  editor  of  The  Living  Church. 

"THE  SONS  AND  DAUGHTERS  OF  KNOX." 

Mr.   Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

Like  every  good  mother,  our  Alma  Mater  when  she  celebrates  her 
birthday,  remembers  her  children,  and  it  is  because  they  are  loyal  and 


20  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


true  that  she  is  able  to  keep  this  day  with  rejoicing.  Old  Mother  Knox 
has  many  sons  and  daughters,  aye,  and  grandchildren  too,  who  are  wish- 
ing her  many  happy  returns  of  the  day. 

We  are  not  ashamed  of  the  Knox  family  wherever  found,  and  they 
are  found  in  almost  every  part  of  the  civilized  world — and  in  Florida. 
These  true,  earnest,  helpful  men  and  women  are  at  work,  and  have  been 
for  half  a  century,  in  places  of  trust,  in  Christian  schools  and  homes,  in 
all  the  enterprises  with  which  a  prosperous  nation  abounds.  They  have 
filled  places  of  honor  and  of  danger,  not  hesitating  to  respond  to  the  call 
of  country  in  the  hour  of  peril.  Among  the  graves  that  are  gratefully 
visited  on  Decoration  Day  there  are  none  more  worthy  of  honor  than 
those  where  sleep  the  soldier  boys  of  Knox. 

The  roll  call  of  the  Alumni-ae  (if  I  may  coin  a  word  to  include  the 
graduates  of  both  sides  of  the  park),  would  suggest  a  record  of  noble  ser- 
vice and  good  report,  of  which  any  college  might  be  proud.  It  is  not, 
however,  upon  the  record  of  a  few  exceptionally  brilliant  careers  that  we 
congratulate  Knox  College  to-day,  but  upon  the  honorable  and  useful 
lives  which  she  has  helped  so  many  hundreds  to  live,  yea,  upon  the 
thousands  who  have  gone  forth  bearing  good  seed  and  using  the  intellect- 
ual and  moral  powers  which  were  trained  here  for  the  benefit  of  man- 
kind. 

So  it  seems  right  and  good  that  Alma  Mater,  when  she  looks  back 
over  her  many  years  of  honorable  service,  should  remember  the  sons 
and  daughters  whom  God  hath  given  her  as  the  crown  and  glory  of  her 
work,  and  they  upon  their  part,  should  remember  what  they  owe  to 
their  scholastic  mother,  "Like  mother,  like  child."  Let  the  mother  have 
credit  and  praise.  She  desires  to  honor  her  children  to-day  by  calling 
out,  as  I  have  feebly  voiced  it,  some  witness  to  their  worth  and  work. 
This  worth  and  work  are  largely  the  result  of  her  training  and  influence, 
the  product  of  what  scientists  call  "environment."  There  may  be  some 
here  who  can  bear  witness  as  to  what  this  has  been  from  the  beginning, 
who  can  tell  us  under  what  auspices  of  faith,  hope  and  love  the  college 
was  founded  and  what  it  owes  to  the  noble  ideals  of  its  founder,  whose 
good  stewardship  we  commemorate  today.  My  own  observation  extends 
over  one  generation.  It  is  nearly  thirty  years  since  I  entered  the  senior 
class  of  the  college.  There  was  then  as  there  is  now,  a  faculty  of  devoted 
and  learned  men  and  women  deeply  interested  in  the  progress  and  wel- 
fare of  the  students.  We  knew  each  other  in  those  days.  I  hope  that 
Knox  will  never  be  so  large  and  lofty  that  she  cannot  reach  down  and 


KKOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  21 


take  her  children  by  the  hand.  The  inspiration  that  comes  to  youth  by 
association  with  great  men  is  of  more  value  than  any  study  of  books. 

Thirty-three  years  ago!  and  shall  I  tell  you  what  sort  of  men  I 
found  in  the  college  at  that  time?  They  were,  for  the  most  part,  earn- 
est, hard-working  students,  high-minded  and  serious,  as  facing  the  great 
issues  of  life.  Those  were  the  days  of  the  war,  when  old  men  seldom 
smiled,  and  young  men  checked  their  laughter.  But  there  were  many 
hours  of  pleasant  companionship  and  quiet  enjoyment  in  the  old  barracks, 
which  were  known  as  "The  Bricks,"  and  sometimes  the  banquet  table  was 
spread,  with  peanuts  in  the  shell  and  cider  out  of  a  tin  cup.  That  was  all 
the  carousing  I  ever  heard  of  in  those  days.  There  was  very  little  need 
of  discipline.  Sometimes  a  boy  was  sent  up  to  the  president  for  play- 
ing some  foolish  prank,  but  there  were  no  "bummers,"  no  loafers  in  col- 
lege or  academy;  no  "lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort"  to  annoy  and  dis- 
grace the  mother  who  was  giving  them  shelter  and  training.  When  I 
read  of  the  outrages  committed  in  some  institutions,  it  seems  to  me  it 
would  be  well  to  add  to  the  litany  for  use  in  colleges,  "From  all  roughs 
and  toughs,  good  Lord  deliver  us!" 

We  sons  and  daughters  of  Knox  College,  upon  this  Founders'  Day 
and  on  many  other  days,  should  not  only  recall  the  old  scenes  of  our 
life  and  work  here;  we  should  also  try  to  realize  what  fruit  that  life  and 
work  have  borne  in  our  subsequent  career.  The  young  man  who  goes 
"so  smug  upon  the  mart"  with  his  diploma  in  hand,  with  his  college  bills 
paid,  may  think  that  he  owes  no  man  anything;  indeed,  may  fancy  that 
he  has  conferred  a  favor  upon  the  college  by  giving  it  his  "patronage." 
The  time  will  come,  however,  when  he  will  realize  to  some  extent  what 
the  college  has  done  for  him;  that  without  its  training  and  influence  he 
would  have  been  handicapped  all  through  the  race  of  life;  that  he  would 
have  lived  and  moved,  and  had  his  intellectual  being  on  a  lower  plane; 
that  he  would  have  failed  of  the  accomplishment  of  things  which  are  his 
chief  honor  and  pride;  that  he  would  have  been  poor  in  that  which  he 
counts  his  most  enjoyable  and  durable  earthly  riches — the  treasures  of  a 
cultivated  mind.  All  these  advantages  have  come  to  him,  and  could 
have  come  to  him  only  through  the  organic  life  and  specialized  functions 
of  the  institution  of  which,  for  a  time,  he  was  a  member.  It  is  a  gospel 
truth:  "No  man  liveth  to  himself."  In  another  phase:  "No 
man  groweth  by  himself."  Institutions,  schools,  colleges,  church- 
es, nations,  the  individual  inherits.  He  does  not  make  them  or  re- 
turn value  received  when  he  pays  his  bills;  he  only  shares  in  some  in- 


22  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


cidental  expenses.  The  foundation  on  which  he  builds  was  laid  long 
ago;  and  some  of  the  far-sighted  founders  we  commemorate  today;  the 
walls  and  roof  and  furnishings  and  endowments,  have  been  the  result  of 
generations  of  wise  benefactors.  Therefore,  with  grateful  recognition 
of  benefits  received,  should  every  son  and  daughter  of  Knox  recall  the 
founders  and  benefactors  of  an  institution  which  has  done  so  much  for 
them  and  for  the  world. 

As  one  of  the  sons  I  am  glad  to  bring  my  tribute  of  appreciation 
and  gratitude,  and  I  believe  that  I  voice  the  feelings  and  convictions  of 
thousands  in  all  that  I  have  said.  The  Alumni  of  Knox  have  done  some- 
thing from  time  to  time  to  express  their  appreciation  in  more  substantial 
form  than  words.  They  will  do  more  that  way,  I  trust.  But  in  one  di- 
rection they  have  "exceeded  the  sum  of  all  accounts;"  they  have  furnished 
the  college  from  their  ranks  a  president  who  has  the  distinguished  honor 
of  being  the  youngest  man  who  has  ever  been  placed  at  the  head  of  an 
American  college  of  high  rank.  Let  them  now  use  their  influence  to 
sustain  him  in  carrying  forward  the  work  in  which  some  of  the  foremost 
educators  in  the  country  have  preceded  him,  among  whom,  facile  prin- 
ceps,  is  Newton  Bateman,  Doctor  of  Laws,  for  more  than  a  generation 
the  most  conspicuous  among  the  leaders  of  education  in  Illinois,  and 
for  nearly  twenty  years  the  loved  and  honored  president  of  Knox  Col- 
lege. The  sons  and  daughters  of  Knox  thank  God  for  the  benediction 
of  his  presence,  and  for  the  splendid  example  of  a  long  life  devoted  to 
the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good.  Serus  in  cmlum  redeat. 

When  I  note  that,  to-day,  in  active  service,  there  are  two  instructors 
in  the  college,  to  whose  lectures  of  more  than  thirty  years  ago  I  owe  so 
much,  to  whom  then  I  looked  up  as  to  men  of  advanced  years  and  learn- 
ing, I  begin  to  feel  young  again.  There  is  Professor  Kurd,  my  ideal  of  a 
live  teacher;  I  can  never  think  of  him  as  growing  old;  and  Professor  Corn- 
stock,  whose  ability  to  calculate  an  eclipse  filled  me  with  admiring  won- 
der when  I  was  an  undergraduate,  still  going  on  as  serenely  as  the  moon; 
and  Professor  Churchill,  the  sturdy  veteran  who  has  stood  by  the  Acad- 
emy all  these  years, — but  I  must  not  speak  of  the  fathers.  The  sons  and 
daughters  of  Knox!  Speaking  for  them  of  Alma  Mater,  I  am  sure  that 
they  all  join  me  in  saying  that  we  honor  her  past,  we  admire  her  present, 
we  glory  in  her  future.  Her  real  endowment  is  not  in  bonds  and  real 
estate,  but  in  the  consecration  of  noble  lives  to  her  service.  In  promot- 
ing her  interest  we  honor  ourselves,  we  honor  our  country,  we  strengthen 
the  foundations  of  an  institution  which  has  long  been  a  power  for  good, 


PROFESSOR    IN  NESS   GRANT. 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS1  DAY.  23 


The  Chairman:  And  Knox  has  sisters,  too,  many  and  •  good 
sisters.  There  is  one  who  is  especially  dear  to  her  because  she  has 
given  to  us  him  who  is  universally  beloved  by  the  students  of  Knox  Col- 
lege and  our  townspeople,  and  respected  all  up  and  down  this  state,  Dr. 
Newton  Bateman.  We  are  honored  today  by  the  presence  of  the  hus- 
band of  that  sister,  President  Bradley,  of  Illinois  College.  I  have  great 
pleasure  in  introducing  him  to  you. 

"  SISTERS  OF  KNOX. " 
Mr.   Chairman,  ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

We  always  consider  it  to  a  man's  credit  if  he  thinks  a  good  deal  of 
his  brothers  and  sisters.  If  he  is  so  self-centered  as  to  take  no  interest 
in  those  who  stand  in  close  relationship  to  him  we  wonder  if  he  realizes 
how  much  he  is  losing.  Colleges  are  like  men  and  I  have  been  glad  to 
see  of  late  some  quickening  of  these  family  ties  among  the  colleges  of 
this  state.  We  had  a  better  family  reunion,  it  is  said,  at  Springfield  in 
December  than  had  ever  been  held  before.  And  soon  after  that  Knox 
College  showed  her  sisterly  affection  for  Illinois  College  by  sending  one 
of  her  most  honored  and  beloved  instructors,  Professor  Hurd,  to  assist 
us  in  carrying  on  our  Bible  Institute. 

And  so  I  am  glad  to  bring  you  the  greeting  of  Illinois  College  on 
this  happy  occasion.  Few  institutions  have  better  grounds  for  sisterly 
affection  than  Knox  College  and  her  staid  elder  sister  Illinois.  I  cannot 
forget  that  after  distinguished  services  in  the  cause  of  education  in  this 
state  and  throughout  the  country,  an  honored  son  of  Illinois  became 
president  of  Knox  College,  guiding  her  growth  during  a  critical  period 
and,  at  length,  amid  universal  regret  resigning  the  office  upon  which  he 
had  conferred  such  honor.  Nor  can  I  forget  that  another  son  of  Il- 
linois, who  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ranked  perhaps,  as  Chi- 
cago's most  eminent  divine  has  long  adorned  your  board  of  trustees, 
Rev.  Dr.  R.  W.  Patterson;  nor  that  another  trustee  of  Knox  is  a  gradu- 
ate of  Illinois  and  a  son  of  its  illustrious  president,  Dr.  Sturtevant. 

But  interesting  and  precious  as  are  these  ties  of  relationship  we 
have  far  deeper  and  more  significant  reasons  for  mutual  interest. 

The  establishment  of  American  colleges  by  the  pioneer  settlers  of 
this  country  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  of  American  history. 
Harvard  College  was  founded  within  six  years  after  the  planting  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  Scarcely  four  thousand  settlers  were  scattered 
along  the  Massachusetts  coast.  No  adequate  provision  had  yet  been  made 
for  their  bodily  comfort  or  their  spiritual  wants.  But  no  limitations  of 


24  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


outward  circumstances  could  blind  their  eyes  to  the  importance  of  intelli- 
gent and  upright  leadership.  They  feared,  we  are  told,  the  influence  of 
an  ignorant  clergy.  They  resolved  that  the  new  nation  should  rest  upon 
the  foundations  of  Christian  learning.  Their  lofty  enterprise  rose  above 
the  sordid  greed  of  gold.  And  so  they  founded  a  college  and  voted  to 
give  four  hundred  pounds  from  their  meager  funds  for  its  endowment, 
and  they  wrote  upon  its  corner  stone  the  noble  motto  which  still  stands 
upon  the  seal  of  that  honored  institution:  "  Christo  et  Ecclesiae" 

Yale  College  was  a  child  of  a  like  purpose.  Ten  ministers  met  at 
Branford  to  plan  for  the  establishment  of  a  college  for  the  education  of 
Christian  pastors.  Each  brought  a  few  books  and  as  he  laid  them  on 
the  table  he  said:  "I  give  these  books  to  found  a  Christian  College." 

And  so  of  the  fair  sisterhood  of  colleges  all  over  the  land.  They 
were  established  to  promote  and  perpetuate  a  Christian  education.  They 
illustrate  the  foresight  and  consecration  of  their  noble  founders.  Pre- 
eminently true  is  this  of  the  early  colleges  of  the  west.  The  founders  of 
Knox  and  Beloit  and  Iowa  and  Illinois  looked  forward  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  great  west  and  calmly  planned  for  a  national  destiny  of 
which  few  had  then  conceived.  There  is  no  fairer  page  in  American 
history  than  that  which  records  the  formation  of  the  famous  Yale  band 
of  1829  and  their  consecrated  enterprise  in  the  planting  of  Illinois  Col- 
lege. It  was  their  courage  and  sagacity  with  that  of  men  of  like  spirit 
in  other  places  which  saved  Illinois  and  all  this  fair  region  from  the 
curse  of  slavery  and  disseminated  the  spirit  of  the  New  England  fathers 
all  over  this  land  of  promise. 

Knox  and  Illinois  then  are  sisters  not  merely  in  that  each  is  seeking 
to  promote  in  its  own  sphere  the  cause  of  higher  education  and  sound 
learning,  but  pre-eminently  because  of  their  identity  in  spirit  and  origin, 
because  the  gifts  of  their  founders  and  benefactors,  the  life  and 
devotion  of  their  officers  and  instructors  have  been  inwrought  into  their 
history  and  their  present  power  for  good.  And  so  we  do  well  to-day  to 
honor  the  memory  and  the  consecration  of  the  founders  of  Knox.  And 
we  do  well  to  hope  that  their  spirit  will  long  be  shared  by  men  of  wealth 
and  foresight  all  over  our  land. 

In  bringing  you,  then,  to-day  the  greetings  of  Illinois  College,  I  but 
express  the  sentiment  and  the  spirit  which  have  ruled  from  the  first  in 
all  this  fair  circle  of  colleges.  May  the  good  Providence  which  guided 
their  planting  grant  them  a  continuous  and  vigorous  growth;  may  the 
vast  population  so  soon  to  flourish  here,  flowing  in  upon  these  prairies  in 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  25 


refluent  waves,  find  that  science  and  religion,  truth  and  the  fear  of  God 
are  fostered  and  maintained  by  these  pioneer  institutions  of  Christian 
training. 

Continuing,  President  Bradley  alluded  to  the  fact  that  there  are  re- 
lationships within  colleges  as  well  as  among  them,  and  as  Knox  had  re- 
cently taken  to  herself  a  vigorous  young  husband,  the  sister  colleges 
wished  them  much  happiness  and  prosperity  in  the  new  union  and  hoped 
all  Alumni  and  friends  of  Knox  College  would  help  its  young  president 
in  the  great  and  trying  work  of  enlarging  its  financial  resources.  In  this 
as  in  all  worthy  efforts  the  sister  colleges  bid  Knox  College  godspeed. 

Mrs.  Frederick  J.  Bentley,  of  Galesburg,  a  great-great-grand  daugh- 
ter of  General  Henry  Knox,  whose  name  the  college  bears,  added 
greatly  to  the  enjoyment  and  interest  of  the  exercises  by  singing  "Ave 
Maria"  (by  Faure),  accompanied  by  Prof.  W.  F.  Bentley  and  Mr.  War- 
ren Willard. 

• 

The  Chairman:  We  have  neighbors,  too,  as  well  as  relatives, 
and  one  of  our  nearest  neighbors  is  Rock  Island.  It  is  a  great  pleasure 
to  have  with  us  to-day  a  good  representative  of  that  city,  and  of  our 
neighbors  in  general,  the  Rev.  W.  S.  Marquis,  who  will  speak  to 

"THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE  IN 

AMERICA. " 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

When  the  revered  Dr.  Hopkins  took  the  President's  Chair  at  Wil: 
Hams  in  1836,  he  said  in  his  inaugural  address:  "I  have  no  ambition  to 
build  up  here  what  would  be  called  a  great  institution,  but  I  do  desire 
and  shall  labor  that  this  may  be  a  safe  college — that  here  may  be  health 
and  cheerful  study,  and  kind  feelings  and  pure  morals;  and  that  in  the 
memory  of  future  students  college  life  may  be  made  a  still  more  verdant 
spot."  And  no  man  ever  redeemed  a  promise  more  nobly.  Char- 
acter was  the  thing  he  aimed  at;  development  of  mind  and  morals 
and  manners  together  into  strong  and  symmetrical  manhood.  His 
students  were  moulded  by  his  own  strong  Christian  character, 
and  the  devout  simplicity  and  confidence  with  which  he  taught 
all  truth  from  .the  stand  of  Christian  theism.  Not  as  a  sectarian, 
not  as  a  religious  enthusiast,  such  as  Dr.  Griffin,  his  predecessor,  had 
been,  but  with  a  sweet  reasonableness  and  a  magnetism  never  surpassed, 


26  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY, 


he  presented  belief  in  God  as  the  true  philosophy  of  life  and  of  ihe 
world.  This,  we  are  told,  was  the  secret  of  his  wonderful  character- 
moulding  power. 

"The  question  is  not,"  writes  President  Porter,  of  Yale,  "whether 
the  college  shall  or  shall  not  teach  theology,  but  what  theology  shall  it 
teach — theology  according  to  Corate  and  Spencer,  or  according  to  Bacon 
and  Christ?  Theology  according  to  Moses  and  Paul  or  according  to 
Buckle  and  Draper?  For  a  college  to  hesitate  to  teach  theism  and 
Christianity  is  practically  to  proclaim  that  in  the  opinions  of  its  guard- 
ians the  evidence  for  and  against  is  so  evenly  balanced  that  it  would  be 
unfair  for  them  to  throw  the  weight  of  their  influence  on  either  side  and 
is  in  fact  to  throw  it  on  the  side  of  materialism,  fatalism  and  atheism." 

Here  is  the  reason  why  we,  as  Christians,  demand  institutions  of 
higher  learning  dominated  by  Christian  truth.  Not  to  do  so  is  to  sur- 
render our  youth  to  materialism  and  agnosticism. 

"The  end  of  education,"  says  Jean  Paul  Richter,  "is  to  elevate 
above  the  spirit  of  the  age."  Commenting  on  this  President  Payne,  of 
the  Ohio  Wesleyan,  remarks: 

"Richter  says,  'The  end  of  education  is  to  elevate  above  the  spirit  of 
the  age. '  That  is  a  great  truth  which,  amid  the  clamor  about  an  educa- 
tion of  the  times  and  for  the  times,  we  do  well  to  heed.  We  must  have 
a  culture  which  ennobles,  enlarges  and  enriches  the  mind  and  lifts  it  out 
of  the  materialistic  atmosphere  of  the  age.  Hence  the  necessity  of  a 
judicious  attention  to  the  classics,  ancient  and  modern,  to  literature,  to 
history  and  philosophy  and  kindred  studies. 

"We  cannot  afford  to  strike  at  genuine  culture  or  at  Christian  faith, 
and  become  the  abettors  of  a  demoralizing  materialism,  in  order  to  make 
our  educational  work  conform  to  the  demands  of  a  false  public  senti- 
ment." 

What  the  world  wants  to-day  above  all  other  wants  is  men  and 
women  of  lofty  type  and  genuine  character  and  masterful  power, — men 
and  women  whose  souls  as  well  as  brains  have  been  quickened,  who 
perceive  that  intellectual  good  is  empty  and  worthless,  a  positive  curse 
to  the  world,  unless  underneath  it  there  be  a  good  heart,  who  perceive 
that  culture,  apart  from  faith  in  God  and  devotion  to  man,  have  a  ten- 
dency to  produce  an  artificial  and  unsympathetic  character  and  who 
therefore  have  the  Man  of  Galilee  for  their  ideal. 

It  is  asserted  in  some  quarters  that  the  spirit  of  materialism  and  ra- 
tionalism which  characterizes  the  age  has  entered  even  our  Christian  col- 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  27 

leges  and  universities.  It  startles  us  to  read  in  Mr.  Thwing's  Treatise 
on  American  colleges  the  statement:  "The  American  college  has 
ceased  to  be  in  its  government  and  organization  and  instruction  a  distinct 
ively  religious  force.  " 

Dr.  J.  W.  Mendenhall  in  the  Christian  Advocate  (June  6,  1889)  de. 
dares  with  a  startling  array  of  substantiating  facts,  that  as  in  Germany, 
France,  Holland,  England,  so  here  rationalism  has  its  headquarters  in 
the  colleges.  He  specifically  charges  that  Yale  is  the  center  of  Ameri- 
can rationalism  and  Harvard  intensely  rationalistic.  If  this  is  indeed 
true  it  is  a  lamentable  departure  from  the  original  intention  of  the 
founders  of  those  institutions.  Harvard  bears  the  name  of  a  Congrega- 
tional minister  and  carries  on  its  seal  the  motto  "  Christo  et  Ecclesice. " 
Yale  was  planted  to  be  the  foundation  of  even  a  stricter  orthodoxy 
than  was  taught  at  Harvard. 

I  am  constrained  to  receive  these  statements  with  some  allowance. 
The  statistics  show  that  whereas  there  was  but  one  Christian  student  in 
ten  at  Harvard  in  1853,  in  1890  the  proportion  was  one  in  five.  Oth- 
er Christian  colleges  show  the  same  improvement.  Mr.  Thwing  himself 
says  that  about  one-half  of  the  students  in  our  colleges  are  professing 
Christians.  Dr.  Dorchester  also  calls  attention  to  the  encouraging  fact 
that  religious  revivals  are  of  more  frequent  occurrence  and  that  almost 
every  institution  now  has  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  organization  within  its  ranks. 

Yet  we  must  not  be  blind  to  facts.  The  spirit  of  the  age  is  materi- 
alistic. The  magic  word  of  the  day  is  science,  and  "  science, "  says  Prof. 
Diman,  "discusses  force  and  method  but  says  nothing  of  God,  freedom 
and  immortality.  She  leads  us,  therefore,  to  the  tree  of  knowledge 
but  not  to  the  tree  of  life."  "When  history  is  .reduced  to  the  rigid  and 
inexorable  laws  of  physical  science,  as  it  is  by  Buckle  and  Goldwin 
Smith,  and  moral  philosophy  is  based  on  molecular  movements,  as  it  is 
in  substance  by  Spencer  and  Bain;  when  the  data  of  ethics  must  be 
searched  for  only  among  the  rubbish  of  matter,  with  its  necessitarian 
laws,  these  studies  lose  their  inspiring  and  ennobling  power.  It  would 
be  perilous  to  turn  our  American  youth  into  these  sterile  pastures  to 
herd  with  the  cattle  and  to  feed  on  that  which  perishes  alike  with  them- 
selves." 

These  words  remind  us  of  the  question  Bishop  Spaulding  asks  in  his 
address  on  Ideals:  "  Is  the  material  progress  of  the  nineteenth  century 
a  cradle  or  a  grave?  Are  we  to  continue  to  dig  and  delve  and  peer  into 


28  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


matter  until  God  and  the  soul  fade  from  our  view  and  we  become  like 
the  things  we  work  in?" 

Against  such  a  degradation  of  the  glory  of  our  age;  against  such  a 
prostitution  of  science,  which  DuBois  Raymond  declares  owes  its  origin 
to  Christianity;  against  such  a  humiliation  and  destruction  of  the  soul 
of  man,  it  is  the  mission  of  the  Christian  colleges  of  America  to  contend. 

And  this  they  can  only  do  by  making  the  colleges  a  center  of  moral 
power  and  Christian  influence.  John  Calet  placed  the  image  of  the 
Child  Jesus  over  the  master's  chair  in  the  German  school  beside  St. 
Paul's,  London,  and  engraved  beneath  it  the  words,  "  Hear  Ye  Him." 
The  same  ideal  and  the  same  motto  should  be  found  in  all  our  institu- 
tions of  learning.  Jesus  Christ  furnishes  us  not  only  the  picture  of  a 
complete  and  perfect  character,  but  his  unfolding  youth  furnishes  us 
with  the  ideal  of  character  development.  We  find  it  compressed  into 
one  verse:  "And  Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature  and  in  favor 
with  God  and  man."  Here  are  the  four  lines  along  which  there  must 
be  growth  if  the  youth  is  to  receive  a  symmetrical  and  well-balanced  de- 
velopment. "In  stature" — a  physical  development;  "in  wisdom" — a 
mental  training  and  discipline  which  shall  draw  out  (educo)  the  faculties 
of  the  mind  and  give  the  young  the  power  to  grapple  with  the  problems 
of  life;  in  "the  favor  of  God" — spiritual  development  through  that 
communion  of  the  soul  with  the  Infinite  Spirit  which  quickens  all  the 
spiritual  forces  within,  irradiating  character  with  the  "beauty  of  the  Lord" 
and  clothing  it  with  a  power  that  is  not  born  of  earth;  finally,  growth  in 
favor  of  man — or  social  development — the  knowledge  of  the  world,  of 
human  nature,  of  the  requirements  of  social  intercourse;  the  refinement 
of  manners  and  address  in  meeting  men  which  constitutes  such  an  inval- 
uable addition  to  the  character  of  the  young  man  or  woman  when  they 
step  forth  into  the  world. 

This  is  symmetrical  development,  physical,  mental,  spiritual,  social; 
and  Jesus  Christ  is  the  ideal  whom  it  is  our  privilege  to  set  before  the 
youth  of  our  land.  He  is  the  only  ideal,  and  the  master  who  does  not 
point  to  Him  saying  "  Hear  Ye  Him"  will  fail  of  his  mission,  no  mat- 
ter how  brilliant  an  instructor. 

The  vast  majority  of  the  colleges  of  this  land  have  been  founded  as 
we  have  seen,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  exalting  Christ  in  the  culture  of 
our  land.  To  Christ  they  must  remain  true  or  lose  their  power  and 
their  glory.  "  Not  until  this  republic  has  made  a  nearer  approach  to  its 
•decline  and  fall,"  says  President  Payne,  "will  infidel  schools  or  schools 


REV.   JONATHAN    BLANCHARD,    D.    D. 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  29 


antagonistic  to  Christianity,  rise  to  commanding  influence."  On  the 
contrary,  the  more  of  the  teachings  and  spirit  of  the  Great  Teacher  all  our 
educational  institutions  inculcate  and  stamp  upon  the  characters  of  their 
students,  the  wider  will  be  their  influence." 

To  live  for  common  ends  is  to  be  common.  The  highest  faith 
makes  still  the  highest  man.  For  we  grow  like  the  things  our  souls  be- 
lieve, and  rise  or  sink  as  we  aim  high  or  low.  No  mirror  shows  such 
likeness  of  the  face  as  faith  we  live  by,  of  the  heart  and  mind.  We  are, 
in  very  truth,  that  which  we  love,  and  love,  like  the  noblest  deeds,  is 
born  of  faith. 

We  most  sincerely  hope  and  pray  that  this  institution  founded  by 
Christian  faith  and  sustained  through  many  a  trying  hour,  may  ever  be 
true  to  this  high  ideal,  giving  to  the  youth  who  enter  her  halls  that  sym- 
metrical Christian  culture  which  will  fit  them  for  noble  life,  useful  citi- 
zenship and  the  eternal  blessedness  of  those  who  not  through  knowledge 
alone,  but  through  character,  are  fit  for  fellowship  with  God. 

The  Chairman:  And  now  let  me  introduce  to  you  another  neigh- 
bor, one  whom  we  see  for  the  first  time,  but  whom,  once  heard,  we  shall 
wish  to  hear  again,  and  often,  the  Rev.  C.  W.  Hiatt,  pastor  of  the  First 
Congregational  Church  of  Peoria.  His  theme  is 

"THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  COLLEGE." 

Mr.    Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

Wholly  in  addition  to  the  special  and  agreeable  mission  of  congratu 
lation  which  brings  me  here,  I  am  personally  conscious  of  an  interest  in 
this  .institution,  in  which  are  commingled  the  elements  of  curiosity  and 
gratitude.  I  am  curious  to  know  what  meat  the  oratorical  Caesars  of 
Knox  have  been  eating  for  the  past  few  years,  to  make  them  so  great 
and  so  terrible  in  the  eyes  of  college  men.  I  am  grateful,  because,  in-, 
directly,  this  college  has  influenced  my  own  career  by  calling  into  educa- 
tional work,  more  than  forty  years  ago,  the  great  and  inspiring  man, 
under  whom  it  was  my  fortune  to  receive  the  academic  tutelage.  A 
man,  who  brought  to  the  prairies  of  Illinois  somewhat  of  the  granite  of 
his  own  New  England  hills,  who  never  suffered  a  pupil  to  pass  beyond 
his  care  without  receiving  the  impression  of  his  own  heroic  soul,  the 
man  who  wrote  your  college  diploma,  graduating  thirteen  classes  hore, 
the  second  president  of  Knox,  and  the  first  president  of  Wheaton,  Jon- 
athan Blanchard. 


30  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


I  think  that  we  more  than  pay  a  tribute  to  the  past  to-day.  We 
gather  an  inspiration  for  ourselves.  When  that  veracious  and  emotional 
traveler,  Mark  Twain,  was  in  Palestine,  he  ran  across  the  grave  of  Adam. 
He  thereupon  lifted  up  his  voice  and  wept,  for  he  recognized  in  him  a 
distant  relative.  It  was  his  way  of  paying  respects  to  the  class  of  people 
who  are  always  raking  over  the  ashes  of  the  past,  and  clothing  every 
cindered  relic  with  a  sacred  sentiment.  The  Innocent,  however,  would 
scarcely  have  turned  his  ridicule  upon  a  scene  like  this.  If  America 
has  anything  on  which  to  pride  herself,  it  is  the  memory  of  those 
devoted  spirits,  who,  fifty  years  and  more  ago,  at  great  sacrifice,  planted 
in  the  beech  and  oak  clearings  of  Ohio  and  Michigan,  and  amid  the 
prairie  grasses  of  Illinois  and  Iowa,  the  foundations  of  colleges,  wherein 
learning  should  ever  be  the  hand-maiden  of  religion,  and  where  the  priv- 
ileges of  education  should  never  be  restricted,  whether  on  account  of 
race,  or  sect,  or  sex.  Such,  I  believe,  was  the  genesis  of  the  institution 
whose  foundation  we  celebrate.  These  men  sought  a  perfect  state  of 
society.  They  decried  and  discarded  all  patent  processes  of  human 
restoration  and  development.  They  looked  for  the  perfect  state  of  soci- 
ety to  come  of  perfecting  its  unit,  the  individual  man.  This  would  be 
accomplished  by  developing  what  was  noblest  in  him,  the  intellect  and 
heart,  giving  to  him  both  knowledge  and  faith,  whose  highest  exponents 
were  the  college  and  the  church.  These  two  must  work  together. 

It  was  a  good  philosophy.  There  is  a  natural  correlation  between 
the  institution  that  lifts  the  flambeau  of  truth,  and  the  institution  that 
lights  the  torches  of  love.  You  cannot  illuminate  the  world  with  either 
one  alone.  Jesus  was  the  "truth."  God  is  "  love"  and  when  these  two 
met  in  Christ,  who  was  both  God  and  man,  love  and  truth,  he  it  was  who 
could  justly  and  triumphantly  declare  "I  am  the  light  of  the  world." 
Truth  and  love  are  weak  when  unrelated.  Truth  becomes  a  pale  and 
sickly  glimmer.  Love  becomes  a  vapid  sentimentalism,  guilty  of  ab- 
surdities and  extremes.  But  when  love  and  truth  unite,  the  dark  earth 
becomes  ablaze  with  light.  Then  it  is  that  Oberlin  forsakes  his  Stras- 
burg  for  the  mountains  of  the  Vosges,  and  Mackay  turns  his  back  on 
universities  of  Britain  to  hide  away  in  the  consecrated  smithy  of  interior 
Africa,  and  Chalmers  descends  from  the  loftiest  pulpit  in  Christendom 
to  bury  himself  in  the  lowly  parish  of  St.  John's.  It  is  when  truth  and 
love  unite  that  upon  the  iniquities  of  the  earth  there  comes  the  expulsive 
power.  It  is  intelligent  Christianity  and  Christianized  intelligence  that 
will  give  the  smile  to  the  desert,  and  to  the  wilderness  a  rose.  And 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  31 


these  are  the  product  of  the  college  and  the  church  when  unitedly  at 
work.  It  is  a  divine  relation,  and  what  God  hath  joined  together  let  no 
man  put  asunder. 

But  this  was  not  a  new  philosophy.  The  Puritan,  whether  of  the 
Mayflower  or  later  immigration,  built  his  two  cabins  side  by  side,  one 
for  religion  and  one  for  education.  In  the  planting  of  all  the  noble  in- 
stitutions of  those  early  times,  Harvard,  Yale,  Princeton,  The  College  of 
William  and  Mary,  the  purpose,  written  or  unwritten,  was  for  "  Christ 
and  His  Church."  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  when  the  260  volumes  of 
John  Harvard  all  perished  in  the  flames  but  one,  the  title  of  this  one  was 
"  The  Christian  Warfare  Against  the  Devil."  In  this  connection  it  is 
proper  to  inquire  what  is  the  relation  of  colleges  and  churches  in  our 
day.  It  is  clear  enough  that  the  churches  are  not  contributing  their  pro- 
duce as  the  fathers  did,  peas,  corn  and  beans,  to  the  support  of  these 
institutions.  For  instance,  in  Illinois  there  are  304  churches  in  the  order 
to  which  I  belong.  Of  this  number  215  gave  nothing  for  education  last 
year.  And  yet  there  is  a  relation  between  the  church  and  college.  We 
observe  a  day  of  prayer  for  colleges  once  a  year — that  is  a  part  of  the 
day,  and  part  of  it,  a  very  small  portion  of  the  day  we  pray  for  you, 
brethren,  but- in  no  part  of  the  day  do  we  pay  for  you.  We  send  a  few 
of  our  boys  and  girls  to  school.  However  they  do  not  all  go  to  the  Chris- 
tian college  in  the  vicinage.  A  while  ago  in  a  church  of  five  hundred  mem- 
bers, I  noticed  that  fourteen  young  men  and  maidens  went  out  of  town 
to  school.  Of  this  number  four  traveled  a  thousand  miles,  three  five 
hundred  miles,  three  went  into  a  neighboring  state,  two  attended  the 
state  university,  which,  to  say  the  least,  did  not  prepare  young  men  for 
the  ministry,  while  two  of  the  fourteen,  went  forty  miles  to  the  Christian 
college,  which  had  a  right  to  claim  the  entire  fourteen.  It  was  a  well- 
appointed  institution.  It  was  thriving  excepting  that  it  lacked  pupils 
and  finances.  All  this  was  wrong.  The  church  associations  sometimes 
send  a  committee  to  inspect  the  college.  These  visitors  appear  for  a  day, 
returning  with  interest  the  vacant  stare  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  on  the 
blackboards,  walking  wearily  through  the  scientific  halls,  and  spending 
their  last  hour  looking  at  the  backs  of  the  books  in  the  library;  and  when 
next  the  association  meets  they  report  that  the  college  is  doing  well,  and 
recommend  that  it  be  given  the  same  sympathy  in  the  future  as  in  the 
past. 

Surely  the  relation  of  church  and  college  might  be  closer  and  more 
practical.  For  instance  I  do  not  like  to  have  our  boys  going  to  Harvard 


32  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


and  our  girls  going  to  Vassar,  with  a  noble  Christian  college  open  to  both 
at  our  very  door.  Speaking  of  Vassar  reminds  me  of  a  little  parody 
that  went  the  rounds  when  I  was  editor  of  a  quite  meritorious  but  not 
financially  successful  college  journal — 

"There  was  a  young  maiden  of  Vassar, 
In  drawing  no  one  could  surpass  her, 
She  drew  like  Lorain — a  very  long  train, 
And  a  check  that  astonished  the  cashier." 

Some  people,  however,  have  a  deep-seated  prejudice  against  co-educa- 
tional schools.  A  graduate  of  Yale  once  asked  "  Is  it  true  that  students 
of  co-educational  colleges  go  out  paired?"  And  the  reply  came  laconi- 
cally "Yes,  pre-pared."  The  churches  must  sustain  these  Christian 
schools — Christian  enough  to  educate  both  boys  and  girls. 

It  rests  upon  a  reasonable  proposition.  The  churches  expect  the 
colleges  to  fill  their  pulpits.  The  colleges  have  a  right,  therefore  to  ask 
the  churches  to  fill  their  class-rooms  and  treasuries.  I  do  not  believe 
that  we  shall  absolve  ourselves  of  obligation  by  passing  around  the  con- 
tribution boxes  once  a  year.  Often  such  collections  only  just  suffice  to 
fill  the  cup  of  despair.  But  this  I  maintain,  while  we  are  appointing 
committees  to  attend  to  the  educational  interests  of  the  black  man  and 
the  red  man  and  the  yellow  man  and  the  brown  man,  we  should  also  ap- 
point a  committee  to  take  care  of  the  white  man  who  is  so  unfortunate 
as  to  be  born  in  the  United  States.  A  committee  that  shall  not  only 
secure  funds  but  also  pupils  for  the  neighboring  Christian  college.  It  is 
a  theory  of  mine  that  when  pupils  throng  a  school  it  is  easier  to  secure 
money  than  when  financial  agents  throng  the  rich  man's  door.  I  count 
it  among  the  privileges  of  Christian  ministry  to  encourage  the  holy 
grace  of  intellectual  discontent  in  young  men  and  women  until  they  res- 
olutely set  their  faces  for  a  liberal  education,  thus  seeking  to  add  to 
their  faith  that  knowledge  which  shall  clothe  it  with  all  but  irresistible 
power.  The  minister  is  not  usually  oppressed  with  an  overplus  of  funds. 
He  often  laments  that  he  may  not  pay  the  way  of  aspirant  boys  and  girls, 
but  perhaps  he  has  the  commission  only  to  pave  the  way.  I  have 
thought  that  it  would  be  good  for  colleges  to  adopt  a  heroic  plan  of  giv- 
ing absolutely  free  tuition  to  such  young  men  as  ministers  may  recomend. 
For  I  am  convinced  that  where  the  churches  have  their  treasures  there 
their  hearts  will'also  be. 

Undoubtedly  the  battle  plain  of  truth  and  error  in  the  next  one 
hundred  years  will  be  this  American  continent  and  perhaps  this  very 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  33 


Mississippi  valley.  The  mighty  agents  of  the  truth,  the  pledge  of  victory, 
will  be  the  joint  product  of  our  churches  and  our  schools.  It  therefore 
behooves  the  church  and  college  to  co-operate.  Let  the  pulpit  lift  the 
clarion  of  inspiration.  Let  the  pew  pour  out  its  wealth.  Let  the  col- 
lege open  wide  its  doors! 

A  chorus  of  college  boys  here  sang  Founders'  Day  Song  to  the  tune, 
"John  Brown's  Body,"  the  body  of  students  joining  in  the  last  refrain. 
The  song  was  composed  by  Prof.  L.  S.  Pratt. 

To  sing  the  praise  of  dear  old  Knox  we  bid  you  now  prepare, 
For  those  who  love  these  college  walls  have  lately  been  aware, 
Within  the  last  six  months  or  so,  there's  something  in  the  air 
Which  augurs  well  for  Knox. 

REFRAIN: —  Money  has  begun  to  flow, 

Alumni  hope  is  in  a  glow, 
Students  have  increased,  and  so 
All  augurs  well  for  Knox. 

The  history  of  our  college  home  has  always  been  our  pride, 
For  head  and  heart  and  spirit  there  are  cultured  side  by  side. 
Success  has  our  alumni  crowned  in  everything  they've  tried, 

'Tis  the  history  of  our  Knox. 

REFRAIN: —  Success  in  church  and  school  and  state, — 

Knox  blood  has  always  made  men  great, 
And  so  her  past  we  celebrate, 
Grand  history  of  old  Knox. 

So  forward  is  our  thought  to-day:  we  look  toward  coming  years. 
Our  hopes  are  bright:  new  eras  dawn:  the  darkness  disappears. 
A  prospect  of  the  future  day  with  joy  our  bosom  cheers, — 

The  future  of  new  Knox. 
REFRAIN: —  Our  past  but  faintly  typifies 

Success  on-looking  hope  descries, — 
O!  vision  sweet  to  longing  eyes. 

Rare  future!  noble  Knox. 

And  so  with  loving  loyalty  we  offer  heart  and  hand 
Anew  to  thee  to-day,  dear  Knox,  thy  stalwart  student  band, 
And  pledge  to  do  our  best  for  thee,  whatever  thy  command, 
Our  best  for  thee,  old  Knox. 


34  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


REFRAIN:—  Knox  carissiraa!  our  own! 

To  the  breeze  thy  banner's  thrown! 
Love  to  thee,  and  thee  alone, 

We  pledge  to-day,  dear  Knox. 

REFRAIN,  REPEATED: — 

Zip,  rah,  boom,  rah,  Knox,  Knox,  Knox! 
Zip,  rah,  boom,  rah,  rocks,  rocks,  rocks! 
Zip,  rah,  boom,  rah,  welcome,  new  epochs! 
Boom,  rah,  Knox,  Ifnox,  KNOX! 

The  Chairman:  We  are  honored  in  the  presence  this  morning  of 
a  man  affectionately  called  by  his  thousands  of  friends  up  and  down 
this  country  as  "  Father  Coffin. "  He  is  himself  a  founder  of  a  great 
order  and  a  strong  ally  and  friend  of  the  workingmen,  especially  those 
whose  lives  are  spent  in  the  employ  of  the  railway  corporations,  though 
he  is  himself  a  farmer.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  the  Hon.  L. 
S.  Coffin.  The  subject  to  which  he  will  speak  is 

"THE  VALUE  OF  A  COLLEGE  EDUCATION." 

Mr.   Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

Why  a  humble  man — a  farmer —  a  man  who  never  enjoyed  the  in- 
estimable privilege  of  such  institutions  as  this  whose  anniversary  we  cele- 
brate to-day  should  be  invited  to  participate  in  these  commendable  festiv- 
ities, I  cannot  conceive,  unless  it  be  upon  the  principle  which  underlies 
that  immortal  and  precious  sonnet,  "  Home,  Sweet  Home."  I  think  I 
have  been  told  that  the  writer  of  that  song  never  knew  what  the  joys 
of  home  were,  that  he  was  a  homeless  wanderer.  He  knew  its  value  by 
its  loss  or  absence.  This  great  honor  conferred  upon  me  by  being 
invited  to  take  some  little  part  upon  this  platform,  at  this  interesting 
time,  adds  a  keenness  to  the  pang  of  the  ever  returning  regret  that  I  am 
not  and  cannot  ever  be  reckoned  among  the  alumni  of  any  college  or 
university.  I  was  thoughtlessly  robbed  of  boyhood  opportunities  for 
education  and  when  a  young  man  my  services  were  too  valuable  as  a 
worker  on  the  farm  to  allow  of  academic  privileges.  When  of  age  I 
found  myself  so  lacking  in  all  discipline  and  culture  that  I  was  forced  to 
make  some  effort  for  an  education.  But  the  extent  of  my  schooling 
was  not  more  than  about  two  years  in  the  preparatory  department  at 
Oberlin,  Ohio,  whither  I  came  drawn  by  the  report  of  Its  won- 
derful facilities  offered  to  young  men.  I  am  by  birth  and  life-long 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  35 


work  a  farmer,  and  my  life  has  been  one  of  such  close  confinement  to  toil 
and  public  work  in  God's  providence  laid  upon  me,  that  I 
have  never  been  able  to  command  enough  time  to  devote  to 
reading,  even  so  as  to  be  at  all  at  home  with  intelligent,  cultured  men. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  with  all  this  lack  of  education  and  training,  it 
has  been  my  lot  in  the  past,  thirty  days  to  stand  frequently  before  public 
audiences,  as  here  to-day,  and  all  these  years  I  have  been  compelled  to 
reap  the  harvest  from  seeds  sown  in  early  life.  Being  extremely  sensi- 
tive of  my  lack,  I  have  never  yet  been  able  to  rise  before  a  public  audi- 
ence to  speak  without  humiliating  embarrassment.  I  thus  humble  my- 
self before  you  to-day,  and  violate  all  rules  of  public  speaking  in  thus 
opening  to  your  view  my  life  in  order  to  enforce  what  I  would  say  to 
every  young  man  and  boy,  young  woman  and  girl  who  has  the  ambition 
for  an  education,  to  let  no  obstacle  stand  between  you  and  a  thorough 
course  of  study.  With  the  opportunities  now  at  the  hands  of  every 
young  man  and  woman  it  becomes  almost  the  unpardonable  sin  not  to 
secure  a  good  education. 

But  I  am  expected  to  speak  to  you  a  few  minutes  upon  the  subject  of 
a  liberal  education  as  connected  with  labor  and  the  efforts  of  labor  to 
better  its  own  condition.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  say  here  that  my 
whole  soul  is  in  hearty  sympathy  with  labor.  All  my  life  I  have  been  a 
hard  working  man  in  the  manual  labor  of  the  farm.  I  have  seen,  of 
course,  as  the  years  have  come  and  gone,  all  the  labor  orders  come  into 
existence.  I  do  not  say  I  have  always  agreed  with  all  the  movements 
made,  or  the  motives  that  have  actuated  some  of  these  orders;  still,  un- 
derneath or  behind  them  all,  or  nearly  all,  is  this  grand  motive,  viz.:  the 
betterment  of  the  condition  of  the  laboring  man  and  his  family.  Some 
of  the  ways  and  means  to  this  end  adopted  by  some,  I  may  not  approve, 
but  it  is  not  necessary  at  this  time  and  place  to  dwell  upon  the  errors  of 
labor.  We  are  here  to  point,  if  possible,  to  avenues  .that  lead  out,  up 
and  away  from  not  only  the  errors,  but  the  woes,  the  burdens,  and  if  I 
may  say  it,  the  un-American  distinctions  that  class  one  set  of  men  as  la- 
borers and  another  as  capitalists.  I  look  with  dread,  and  I  may  say  sor- 
row and  alarm,  at  this  increasing  use  of  the  word  "class"  or  "classes"  as  ap- 
plied to  the  American  people.  The  intelligent,  honest  laboring  man  is 
the  true  "  American. "  If  there  must  be  any  distinctions  made  aside 
from  that  of  honest  manhood  as  against  meanness  and  knavery,  let  it  be 
that  of  intelligence  as  against  ignorance.  Any  distinction  based  on 
wealth  and  poverty  should  have  no  place  in  this  land  of  equality.  Any 


36  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


distinction  of  this  nature  I  hope  will  always  be  as  now,  based  upon  a 
very  unstable  foundation.  May  the  time  never  come  in  this  land  when 
the  son  of  the  laborer  of  to-day  cannot  be  the  father  of  the  millionaire  to- 
morrow. But  the  question  is,  how  shall  this  condition  of  things  be  re- 
strained by  us  in  this  land  of  freedom  and  equal  rights?  The  answer 
comes  short  and  quick — viz.:  by  maintaining  and  consecrating  just  such 
institutions  as  these  to  the  lifting  up  of  the  children  of  the  men  of  toil. 
Labor  is  impatient,  is  impulsive.  What  it  wants,  it  thinks  it  wants 
badly  and  wants  it  now.  It  does  not  read  history,  or,  if  it  reads,  it 
does  not  always  heed  its  lessons.  God  is  always  at  the  helm  of  the 
ship  that  carries  all  humanity.  A  thousand  years  are  as  one  day  with  Him. 
Moses  had  to  lead  his  laborers  for  two  hundred  years  through  the  wilder- 
ness ways  before  he  gained  what  they  struck  for.  They  needed  disci- 
pline. They  needed  education  and  God  gave  them  time  to  get  it.  Labor 
must  look  along  the  years  and  work  and  wait.  The  fathtr  laborer  of  to- 
day may,  like  Moses,  only  see  the  promised  land  from  the  mountain  top 
and  in  joyful  faith  and  anticipation  see  the  glorious  land  of  life  his  edu- 
cated children  are  sure  to  have.  There  is  not  a  class  of  men  on  earth 
who  have  a  greater  interest  at  stake  in  the  establishment,  maintenance 
and  patronage  of  such  schools  as  this  and  of  our  common  public  schools 
than  do  the  laboring  men  of  this  country.  Here  is  their  only  hope.  The 
parent,  who  is  a  parent,  looks  not  so  much  to  his  own  as  to  his  child's 
good.  Take  the  children  of  the  average  railroad  man.  They  inherit 
from  the  cool-headed,  determined,  brave,  energetic,  keen,  discriminating, 
strong-hearted  man,  a  make-up  that  can  be  likened  to  a  steam  engine. 
My  observation  is  that  these  children,  as  a  rule,  are  superior  in  many  re- 
spects to  the  ordinary  child.  Such  children,  educated,  become  the  leaders 
of  men.  Instead  of  brakemen,  conductors,  engineers,  they  become  sup- 
erintendents, managers,  presidents,  directors,  capitalists,  or  if  inclined 
to  other  pursuits,  merchants,  lawyers,  and  influential  men  and 
women.  They  go  to  the  top.  But  if  neglected,  not  educated,  they 
drift  along  in  the  ruts  their  fathers  made  and  class  labor  becomes 
entailed  with  all  its  degrading  consequences.  If  I  should  bring  any  ob- 
jection to  these  labor  orders  it  would  be  that  when  one  once  enters  a 
brotherhood  there  is  danger  of  a  feeling  something  like  this:  "  Well,  I 
am  a  brotherhood  man  now  and  it  is  a  pretty  good  thing.  I  like  the 
boys  and  I  will  stay  with  them."  The  ambition  to  go  up  higher,  I  have 
sometimes  thought,  seems  in  a  measure  smothered.  All  these  orders 
should,  like  the  various  churches,  be  considered  not  as  an  end,  but  as  a 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  37 


means  to  a  higher  end — to  develop  the  best  there  is  in  a  man  and 
to  unite  the  powers  of  the  many  in  overcoming  wrong  and 
establishing  right;  to  draw  in  and  lift  up  the  weak  and  those  in  danger 
and  need.  I  have,  as  most  know,  a  great  interest  in  the  Brotherhood  of 
Trainmen,  whose  headquarters  are  in  your  city,  but  I  should  feel  sad  to 
think  that  any  one  of  them  should  feel  that  once  a  brakeman  always  a 
brakeman,  or  that  once  an  employee  always  an  employee.  I  should  like 
the  time  to  come  when  each  one  of  these  men  shall  be  his  own  employer; 
have  a  business  of  his  own,  be  his  own  master.  But  if  he  cannot  be  that 
I  do  want  him  to  see  to  it  that  his  children  shall  receive  the  benefits 
of  such  institutions  as  this,  so  that  they  may  forge  their  way  to  the  front, 
and  that,  too,  in  time  to  take  to  their  better  homes  and  surround- 
ings the  parents  who  have  made  it  possible,  by  their  self-denial,  for  them 
to  get  an  education.  I  would  not  be  too  severe  but  I  do  candidly,  firmly  be- 
lieve, that  no  healthy,  honest,  temperate,  economical  laboring  man,  with 
a  wife  who  is  a  helpmeet  for  him,  can  have  any  real  excuse  for  not  lift- 
ing himself  and  his  posterity  to  a  higher  social  plane  through  the  power 
and  influence  that  will  come  by  the  education  of  his  children.  The 
great  drawback,  the  great  drain  upon  the  wages  of  labor  heretofore  has 
been  the  enormous  drain  upon  these  wages  for  drink  and  tobacco.  Give 
me  the  money  spent  yearly  for  these  worse  than  useless  things  and  I  will 
put  through  college  every  child  of  labor  in  America.  There  is  no  hope 
for  the  children  of  the  laboring  man  so  long  ?.s  the  saloon  divides  his 
wages  between  his  family  and  itself.  This  fact,  thank  God,  the  railroad 
man  has  begun  to  see.  If  all  classes  of  toilers  would  do  as  these  rail- 
road men  are  now  doing,  we  should  soon  see  these  educational  halls 
crowded  with  the  children  from  the  families  whose  only  capital  at  pres- 
ent is  brawn  but  which  in  the  next  generation  will  be  both  brawn  and 
brain.  God  speed  the  day  wheu  the  schools  like  this  will  have  to  be 
multiplied  to  meet  the  growing  wants  of  labor.  . 

The  Chairman:  You  know  that  some  have  read  the  future  of  the 
small  college  in  the  fate  that  befell  the  seven  fat  kine,  which,  in  Pha- 
raoh's dream  fed  in  the  meadows  of  Egypt,  the  fate  of  being  eaten  up 
by  the  lean  and  hungry  universities.  But  I  do  not  fear  such  a  fate  for 
Knox,  for  you  see  I  have  invited  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  great 
university  up  on  the  lake  shore  into  our  fields.  I  have  the  honor  and 
pleasure  of  introducing  him  as  our  friend,  Dr.  Albion  W.  Small,  of  the 
University  of  Chicago.  He  will  speak  of 


38  KtfOK  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'   DAY. 

"  THE  UNIVERSITY  AND  THE  COLLEGE."* 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  as  well  as  an  honor  to  extend  to  Knox  College 
a  most  hearty  greeting  on  behalf  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  I 
rejoice  that  I  live  in  a  generation  in  which  it  is  possible  for  the  mem- 
bers of  Christian  institutions  to  behave  toward  each  other  as  gentlemen 
should.  The  age  of  ungentlemanly,  unchristian,  deadly  rivalry  between 
institutions  of  learning  is  happily  passing  if  not  past.  We  are  getting 
to  see  that  the  prosperity  of  one  is  the  prosperity  of  all.  We  have  at 
Chicago  the  heartiest  sympathy  for  Knox,  because  we  are  so  much  alike 
in  our  situation — we  are  both  poor.  Poverty  is  a  relative  matter  after 
all.  Poverty  is  assets  just  a  dollar  short  of  liabilities.  Poverty  is  legs 
a  trifle  too  long  for  the  pantaloons.  Coming  down  in  the  train,  Presi- 
dent Harper  and  I  were  looking  over  the  University  budget  for  next 
year,  and  it  appears  that  if  we  cannot  retrench,  our  expenditure  next  year 
will  be  forty  thousand  dollars  more  than  our  receipts. 

The  first  suggestion  that  I  will  urge  with  reference  to  the  college  is 
that  its  mission  is  not  primarily  literary  culture;  it  is  the  maturing  and 
strengthening  of  character,  in  which  the  training  and  finish  of  mind  is 
only  one  element.  You  remember  the  story  of  Count  Von  Moltke,  Prus- 
sia's great  field-marshal  in  the  Franco-Prussian  war.  When  his  aide 
entered  his  room  at  night,  and  said,  "  War  is  declared,"  the  old  field- 
marshal  simply  pointed  to  the  second  portfolio  on  the  shelf.  The  war 
was  already  fought  in  anticipation.  It  is  a  proud  career  to  be  able  to 
stand  before  young  students  and  to  help  them  anticipate  the  battle  of  life. 
The  first  mission  of  the  college,  the  fundamental  mission,  is  the  matur- 
ing of  character.  Between  fourteen  and  twenty  is  the  period  when 
ambitions  are  formed,  and  it  is  in  that  period  that  the  college  has  its 
first  function  of  instructing  manhood.  The  man  whose  teaching  I 
enjoyed  most  in  college,  left  upon  me  this  one  impression,  which  I  can 
remember  definitely — I  happened  to  fall  in  with  him  one  day  walking 
down  College  Street.  He  commenced  talking  to  me,  and  this  is  the  one 
remark  which  remained  with  me:  "It  is  best  not  to  let  one  moment  of 
time  go  to  waste."  He  suggested  that  when  I  was  waiting  for  my  din- 
ner at  my  boarding  house,  I  should  have  something  light  to  read  which 
I  did  not  care  to  take  up  more  valuable  time  for,  and  it  was  during  the 

*  Dr.  Small  wax  not  able  to  reproduce  his  remarhx  in  full  and  they  are  publislied  from 
partial  stenographic  notes  taken  by  a  gentleman  in  the  audience. 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'1  DAY.  39 


few  moments  each  day  while  waiting  for  dinner,  that  I  read  whatever  I 
have  of  Dickens.  From  my  fifth  to  my  fourteenth  year  I  was  in  a  Sun- 
day School  in  which  through  all  that  time  there  was  one  superintendent. 
The  only  words  from  that  man's  lips  that  I  can  remember  to-day  are 
words  which  he  uttered  one  Saturday  afternoon  when  I  was  blacking  a 
pair  of  boots,  and  he  said  to  me:  "  Do  you  always  black  the  heels  as 
well  as  you  do  the  toes?"  That  was  all  he  said,  but  I  thought  of  his 
remarks  afterwards,  and  his  words  stayed  with  me.  The  keenest  dis- 
appointment of  my  life  was  in  1876,  when  I  made  application  for  a  posi- 
tion as  instructor  at  Knox  College,  and  received  a  reply  from  the  presi- 
dent that  if  my  application  had  been  received  twenty-four  hours  earlier 
it  would  probably  have  obtained  a  favorable  answer.  Up  to  date  it  is 
actually  the  keenest  disappointment  I  have  ever  suffered.  The  disap- 
pointment of  that  day  in  1876  has  been  revived  during  this  hour  when  I 
have  learned  more  than  I  knew  before  of  what  Knox  College  actually 
was  and  is  for  the  education  of  a  boy.  I  would  give  more  for  the 
ideals,  the  purposes  of  the  men  and  women  whose  lives  have  gone  into 
the  structure  of  this  college  than  for  all  the  libraries  that  wealth  can 
buy. 

The  second  mission  of  the  college,  and  after  all  it  is  the  second 
mission,  not  the  first,  is  the  distribution  to  students  of  the  sum  of  knowl- 
edge acquired  up  to  date.  The  college  is  to  the  university  the  station 
on  the  pipe  line,  of  which  the  university  may  be  called  the  main.  It  is 
the  work  of  the  specialist  to  learn  the  last  returns  from  the  front.  The 
business  of  the  college  is  to  put  into  the  minds  of  the  students  the  latest 
contents  of  the  book  of  nature  that  any  one  has  reported.  It  is  often 
spoken  of  as  a  misfortune  if  a  boy  or  girl  is  obliged  to  get  a  college 
education  in  a  small  college.  I  have  had  experience  both  in  small  col- 
leges and  in  great  universities,  and  it  seems  to  me  exactly  the  reverse. 
The  best  opportunities  for  the  maturing  of  character  during  these  form- 
ing years  are  not  in  connection  with  the  great  universities;  they  are  in 
the  comparative  seclusion  of  the  small  college,  where  the  students  meet 
intimately  and  freely  the  men  who  are  above  them  in  intellect.  The 
small  college  is  the  place  to  get  the  foundation  of  knowledge.  The 
association  of  the  small  college  is  the  world  in  which  the  work  of  the 
public  school  is  best  continued.  I  think  we  are  never  so  sure  of  enter- 
taining angels  unawares  as  when  we  harbor  in  a  town  a  body  of  young 
men  engaged  in  the  pursuits  of  education.  Reference  has  been  made  to 
the  rationalism  of  our  American  and  European  universities.  The  differ- 


40  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


ence  between  the  typical  university  man  and  the  typical  college  man  is 
the  difference  between  the  outlook  in  the  bow,  and  the  passenger  resting 
securely  in  the  cabin  below.  The  business  of  the  university  is  this  gen- 
eral rationalism  which  does  not  cut  away  from  faith  any  more  than 
Columbus  cut  away  from  the  theory  of  gravitation  when  he  sailed  from 
Palos.  The  best  diviners  of  truth  are  not  those  people  who  frown  upon 
scepticism.  The  place  for  the  foundation  work,  the  safe  place,  the 
right  place,  is  not  with  the  sceptic.  Hence  the  atmosphere  of  the  col- 
lege, rather  than  the  university,  is  preferable  for  the  young  student. 
But  it  is  not  right  of  those  who  want  this  work  done  to  denounce  the 
reasonable  sceptics,  i.  e.  the  scientific  searchers  for  new  truth.  They  are 
sceptics  with  faith  in  their  heart,  with  new"  discoveries  and  imaginations 
before  their  eyes. 

You  know  the  old  story  of  the  school  master  in  England  who 
has  a  monument  in  Westminster  Abbey.  ,  The  facts  are  these 
as  related  by  tradition:  It  was  the  custom  of  the  teacher  to  wear 
his  cap  when  teaching  the  school.  One  day  the  king  entered,  but  the 
master  did  not  remove  his  hat.  When  the  pupils  went  out,  the  teacher 
uncovered  his  head.  The  king  asked,  "  Why  do  you  take  off  your  cap 
now?"  The  pedagogue  replied:  "Because  it  would  not  do  for  the  boys 
to  know  that  there  is  any  greater  man  in  England  than  the  master." 
The  growth  of  universities  has  not  diminished  but  rather  increased  the 
responsibility  of  colleges.  It  is  the  right  of  any  college  which,  like 
Knox,  is  fulfilling  its  proper  function,  to  claim  a  dignity  which  makes  it 
essentially  the  peer  of  any  educational  institution  of  any  grade. 

The  Chairman:  We  have  heard  much  of  the  past  of  Knox  Col- 
lege and  now  we  shall  hear  before  closing  these  interesting  exercises  a 
brief  forecast  of  the  future,  and  our  prophet  is  one  who  has  helped  as 
much  as  any  one  person  to  make  the  past  and  the  present  of  this  college 
to  build  an  enduring  foundation  for  a  great  future.  I  introduce  him  who 
needs  no  introduction,  the  teacher  of  thousands  in  the  forty-three 
years  of  his  connection  with  Knox  College,  Professor  Albert  Hurd. 

THE  FUTURE  OF  KNOX  COLLEGE. 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  am  neither  a  prophet  nor  the  son  of  a  prophet,  but  perhaps  I  can 
make  good  the  prediction  just  uttered  by  President  Finley  that  the  last 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  41 


speech  will  be  a  short  one.  When  a  single  Professor  of  Divinity  with 
three  learned  companions  left  the  Monastery  of  Croyland  for  Cambridge 
in  England,  and  hired  a  barn  in  which  to  receive  the  young  men  who 
came  to  them  to  receive  instruction,  they  could  not  look  very  far  into 
the  future.  They  were  called  of  God  to  do  a  noble  work;  in  faith  they 
obeyed  the  call  and  entered  upon  their  mission.  Centuries  have  rolled 
away  since  that  time  and  we  can  now  see  the  result,  but  the  founders  of 
the  great  university  could  not  foresee  the  coming  Chaucer  and  Mil- 
ton, and  Bacon,  and  Macaulay.  In  like  manner  when  a  few  learned 
men  commenced  a  course  of  lectures  at  Oxford,  the  future  greatness  of 
their  school  was  not  discerned;  even  the  eye  of  faith  must  have  fallen 
far  short  of  revealing  the  glorious  history  concealed  by  the  veil  of  years 
yet  to  come.  Wickliffe  and  Wolsey,  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  Lyell  and 
Gladstone,  with  their  commanding  influence  upon  human  affairs  and  hu- 
man destiny,  could  not  have  been  anticipated.  And  so  it  cannot  now  be 
seen  what  mighty  and  influential  minds  are  hereafter  to  be  discovered 
and  trained  within  the  walls  of  Knox  College;  what  perennial  streams  of 
fertility  and  gladness  are  to  flow  for  many  centuries  from  this  infant 
seat  of  learning.  Her  self-sacrificing  founders  came  to  these  prairies  in 
the  same  spirit  which  moved  Abraham  to  leave  his  Mesopotamian  home. 
They  came  here  scarcely  knowing  whither  they  came,  dwelling  in  taber- 
nacles and  looking  for  a  city  of  which  God  should  be  the  builder. 
•They  organized  a  Christian  college  and  planted  a  Christian  church. 
Fifty  years  have  come  and  gone  and  from  the  results  we  may  form  some 
conception  of  what  the  future  has  in  store.  Knox  college  has  already 
furnished  at  least  six  college  presidents,  twenty  college  professors,  a 
hundred  ministers  of  the  gospel  and  missionaries,  eighty  lawyers,  forty 
physicians  and  twenty  journalists  and  editors.  Our  graduates  are  found 
as  judges  in  our  higher  and  lower  courts;  they  are  an  army  of  superin- 
tendents and  teachers  in  our  public  schools;  they  are  successful  business 
men  and  farmers;  and  many  not  included  in  these  lists  are  doing  valua- 
ble work  for  the  country  and  for  humanity.  Where  has  their  work  been 
done?  They  are  in  our  own  cities  and  villages  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific;  they  have  gone  to  Europe  and  to  Africa,  to  Australia  and  to 
Japan,  and  everywhere  are  doing  noble  service  for  God  and  for  the 
highest  interests  of  their  fellowmen.  Knox  College  has  given  these  men 
and  women  the  opportunity  and  the  means  of  preparing  themselves  for 
the  work  of  life,  and  by  the  efficient  work  they  have  performed  has  made 
good  her  right  to  a  continued  existence,  What  Knox  College  has  done 


42  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


in  the  past  day  of  small  things  she  will  certainly  do  on  a  much  larger 
scale  in  the  near  future,  if  only  it  be  possible  to  place  the  great  boon  of 
a  liberal  education  within  the  reach  of  the  constantly  increasing  num- 
ber of  enterprising  and  ambitious  youth  who  may  come  here  for  guid- 
ance and  instruction.  As  Galesburg  enlarges  and  improves;  as  the 
country  develops,  our  college  must  increase  her  endowment  and  her 
ability  to  give  a  thorough  and  complete  education  or  her  day  of  useful- 
ness will  be  ehort.  In  many  directions  enlargement  is  needed,  but  in 
none  is  a  radical  change  more  imperative  than  in  the  department  of  nat- 
ural science,  and  it  is  to  be  earnestly  desired  that  the  means  of  erecting 
a  science  hall  and  of  equipping  it  for  such  work  in  science  as  the  times 
demand,  will  soon  be  provided.  Should  the  present  attempt  to  raise 
$200,000  be  crowned  with  success  and  should  Dr.  Pearsons'  gift  of  $50,- 
000  be  secured,  a  new  era  of  prosperity  will  surely  come,  vindicating  the 
wisdom  and  realizing  the  hopes  of  the  founders  of  Knox  College,  whose 
memory  we  to-day  so  auspiciously  celebrate. 

/ 

After  this  address  all  joined   in  singing  "  Founders'  Day   Hymn," 
composed  by  Prof.  L.  S.  Pratt,  and  sung  to  the  tune  of  "America": 

Our  Fathers'  God!  to-day 
Grateful  to  Thee  we  pray, 

Before  Thee  bow: 
As  Thou  hast  led  of  old, 
With  mercies  manifold, 
Still  by  Thy  love  enfold 

Thy  children  now. 

By  Thine  own  spirit  fired, 
By  heavenly  love  inspired, 

Our  fathers  came 
Into  this  prairie  land: — 
O,  toil  with  heart  and  hand! 
O,  gain  of  harvests  grand! 

In  God's  great  name. 

Guide  Thou  this  college  still! 
May  we  the  hopes  fulfil 

Of  founders  true. 
O,  keep  us  in  Thy  fear! 
May  truth  be  ever  dear, 
And  God's  love  shine  more  clear 

Each  year  anew. 

The   benediction  was  then  pronounced  by  the  Rev.  E.  G.  Smith,  of 
Princeton,  111.,  a  member  of  the  first  class,  1846. 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  43 


EVENING  EXERCISES. 

PRESIDENT  FINLKY:  I  have  the  pleasure  and  the  honor  of  intro- 
ducing as  the  chairman  of  the  evening  our  distinguished  townsman, 
whom  we  are  all  glad  to  welcome  back  to  Galesburg,  after  his  years  of 
honorable  service  abroad,  and  whom  the  College  is  especially  glad  to 
have  in  its  council  again,  the  Honorable  Clark  E.  Carr,  our  recent  Min- 
ister to  Denmark. 

INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS 

BY  THE  HON.  CLARK  B.  CARR. 

The  orator  who  is  to  address  us  this  evening  is  bound  to  the  people 
of  Galesburg  by  bands  of  steel.  When  (after  a  line  for  the  great  Santa 
Fe  railroad  ten  miles  away  from  our  city  had  been  nearly  settled  upon) 
I  went  to  Topeka  and  called  upon  him  and  other  general  officers  of  tne 
company,  I  found  in  him  a  friend  who  favored  us,  and  he  had  great  in- 
fluence in  having  the  line  finally  established  through  this  city. 

It  is  a  frequent  expression  with  him  that  he  loves  to  talk  to  old 
soldiers  and  to  young  men.  He  is  fond  of  speaking  to  old  soldiers  for 
they  are  his  comrades.  In  his  early  youth  he  was  a  brave  and  faithful 
Union  soldier.  When  the  war  was  over  he  chose  the  profession  of  the 
law,  to  which  he  has  steadfastly  devoted  himself,  and  which  he  would 
not  abandon  for  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate,  which  was  offered 
him.  Notwithstanding  the  exactions  of  his  profession,  he  has  found 
time  for  literary  pursuits  outside  of  it,  communion  with  the  great 
and  the  wise  and  the  learned.  It  is  his  opinion  that  men  in  every  pro- 
fession and  trade  and  occupation,  however  humble,  may  bask  in  the 
sunshine  of  intellectual  culture,  and  he  therefore  loves  to  speak  to  young 
men  of  the  splendors  that  are  open  before  them,  and  the  felicities  to 
which  they  may  attain. 

Only  those  fully  appreciate  him  who  know  him  well  enough  to  meet 
him  socially,  when  he  is  able  to  throw  off  the  cares  of  his  profession 
and  admit  them  to  partake  of  the  bounties  of  the  rich  stores  of  knowl- 
edge he  has  garnered,  and  to  revel  with  him  in  the  eloquence  and  poetry 
and  art  of  all  the  ages.  He  will  this  evening  give  us  glimpses  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Light  in  which  he  lives. 

I  have  the  honor  of  presenting  to  you  Colonel  George  R.  Peck, 
General  Solicitor  of  the  Santa  Fe  Railway  Company. 


44  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 

ADDRESS. 

BY    THE    HON.    GEORGE    K.    PECK. 

Mr.   Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  appreciate  most  highly  the  kind  expressions  of  Colonel  Carr  in 
presenting  me  to  you,  although  T  realize  that  they  are  prompted  rather 
by  the  friendly  relations  which  have  existed  between  us  for  many  years, 
than  by  any  merit  of  my  own. 

My  subject  for  to-night,  as  has  been  announced,  is 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  LIGHT. 

Somewhere  in  the  depths  of  every  heart  there  is  a  spring  which 
answers  to  the  touch  of  memory.  A  strain  of  music  that  you  heard  in 
childhood  has  a  peculiar  indefinable  sweetness  which  others  do  not  per- 
ceive. And  days  have  their  significance;  for  each  and  all  have  chron- 
icled births  and  deaths,  and  have  been  filled  with  the  joys  and  sorrows  that 
make  up  human  life.  In  Kinglake's  "  Invasion  of  the  Crimea"  there  is 
a  beautiful  chapter  on  the  mystery  of  holy  shrines,  which  tells  how  out 
of  sentiment  of  love  for  the  holy  sepulchre,  and  of  rivalry  for  the  pos- 
session of  that  sacred  place,  great  nations  drifted  into  war,  and  armies 
sailed  to  far-off  lands,  making  days  that  had  teen  common,  memorable 
forevermore,  and  consecrating  new  shrines  for  future  pilgrimages.  It  is 
not,  I  think,  a  mere  instinct  of  worldly  wisdom  that  inspires  the  reverence 
which  men  feel  for  historic  days  and  places.  It  is  human  nature  reach- 
ing out  unconsciously,  and  with  a  wisdom  which  it  does  not  compre- 
hend, for  that  which  is  ideally  good  and  beautiful.  The  birthday  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  is,  by  the  laws  of  Illinois,  a  legal  holiday.  But  it  was 
something  higher  than  a  state  legislature  which  set  it  apart  and  made 
it  a  day  for  joy  and  pride,  for  high  resolves  and  for  a  new  faith  in  the 
United  States  of  America.  Knox  College  counts  this  as  its  birthday; 
and  1  think  it  was  an  extremely  happy  thought  which  prompted  the  au- 
thorities to  give  it  the  place  of  dignity  in  the  calendar  of  its  history.  It 
is  no  longer  young,  and,  I  doubt  not,  it  is  already  beginning  to  feel  the 
influence  which  is,  perhaps,  the  best  part  of  the  life  of  an  educational 
institution — the  unseen,  silent  power  of  the  accumulated  years.  I  do  not 
wonder  that  students  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  of  Harvard,  Yale  and 
Princeton  feel  a  thrill  of  pride  when  the  great  names  in  their  annals  are 
spoken;  and  this  college  does  a  wise  thing  when  it  gives  itself  a  voice  to 
tell  of  what  it  has  done  aud  what,  if  it  please  God,  it  will  do,  A  life 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  4& 

that  has  no  romance  in  it  is  hardly  worth  the  living,  and  a  college  which 
contains  nothing  in  its  history  that  appeals  to  the  imagination  is,  to  say 
the  least,  lacking  in  a  most  essential  element  of  usefulness.  But  you  have 
it  to  overflowing.  I  know  of  no  story  more  full  of  romantic  interest  than 
that  of  the  founding  of  Knox  College.  I  do  not  speak  of  the  official 
or  legislative  organization,  for  that  was  merely  the  formal  record  of  what 
had  already  been  thought  out.  February  15  is  Founders'  Day,  because  on 
that  day  the  act  of  incorporation  was  passed.  But  there  was  a  foundation 
under  the  foundation,  even  as  DeQuincey  speaks  of  the  depths  that  are 
below  the  depths.  Before  the  Legislature  made  Knox  College  a  body 
corporate,  its  walls  had  been  reared  in  the  mind  of  its  founder.  What 
dreams  of  the  future  came  to  him  in  those  early  days  before  the  colonists 
set  their  faces  to  the  west,  we  know  not!  But  the  college  with  all  its 
possibilities  was  already  upbuilded,  massive,  permanent  and  beautiful, 
before  hammer  or  trowel  had  rung,  or  the  silence  had  been  broken  by 
the  voice  of  the  artisan.  It  seems  like  that  wonderful  vision  of  Cole- 
ridge: 

"In  Xanadu  did  Kubla  Khan 

A  stately  pleasure  dome  decree." 

I  should  like  to  know  what  hint  it  was,  what  suggestion  or  thought 
came  into  the  mind  of  George  W.  Gale  and  inspired  him  to  the  enter- 
prise that  to-day  counts  as  its  accomplished  result  this  great  college  and 
this  beautiful  city.  It  must  have  looked  quixotic,  a  wild,  impossible 
scheme,  to  plant  a  college  in  the  wilderness  and  to  expect  the  city  to 
grow  up  around  it.  But  it  did.  The  college  and  the  city  have  lovingly 
walked  hand  in  hand,  each  counting  the  other  the  apple  of  its  eye. 

To-night  you  are  thinking  of  the  past.  You  are  glad  and  proud,  too, 
for  what  Knox  College  has  done.  It  has  seen  good  and  evil  days;  pros- 
perity and  adversity  have  entered  its  doors,  but  this  birthday  is  a  happy 
one  and  the  omens  point  joyously  to  the  future.  But  I  must  remind  you 
that  self-congratulation,  while  it  has  its  uses,  cannot  keep  an  educational 
institution  prosperous.  The  patrons  and  friends,  the  officers  and  faculty 
of  the  college,  would  be  worthless  if  results  did  not  come  to  the  full 
measure  of  their  effort.  No  college  ever  amounted  to  anything  that  was 
kept  alive  just  for  the  sake  of  being  called  a  college.  It  must  do.  There 
is  nothing  of  value  in  it  if  it  cannot  point  to  higher  character,  to  truer 
lives,  to  better  things  made  possible  by  its  effort. 

It  is  a  fortunate  thing  for  this  institution  that  it  is  located  in  a  re- 
gion to  which  Nature  has  given  her  kindliest  smiles;  a  land  of  meadows 


46  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


and  of  gardens  and  of  goodly  people  living  in  goodly  homes.  I  cannot 
help' thinking  that  the  subtle  law  of  heredity  has  played  a  powerful  part 
in  the  success  which  has  hitherto  attended  the  w6rk  of  Knox  College. 

o 

The  parental  type  is  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation,  and 
the  iron  which  was  in  the  blood  of  the  pioneers  gives  tone  and  vigor  to  the 
students  of  to-day.  What  Knox  College  will  do  in  the  future  depends 
upon  the  character  of  the  teachers  and  instructors  who  fill  the  chairs; 
but  after  .all,  the  students  themselves  must  set  the  mark  of  the  insti- 
tution. The  most  skillful  baker  fails  when  the  flour  is  poor.  If  stu- 
dents ask  what  a  college  can  do  for  them  the  true  answer  is:  It  can  do 
for  them  only  what  they  do  for  it  in  its  good  name  and  character  as  an 
institution  of  learning.  A  college  and  its  students  are  trustees  for  each 
other.  They  give  and  take  and  each  is  richer  by  the  process.  I  cannot 
recall  truer  words  than  those  once  spoken  by  a  great  president  of  Har- 
vard who  said  to  his  students:  "It  is  a  superficial  view  of  things  which 
leads  to  the  distinction  between  education  and  self-education.  In  point 
of  fact  all  education  is  self-education,  the  only  difference  being  that  edu- 
cation in  churches  and  schools  and  colleges,  and  amidst  librairies,  muse- 
ums and  laboratories,  is  self-education  under  the  best  advantages."  To 
the  learners,  and  not  to  the  teachers,  I  feel  that  what  I  have  to  say  ought 
to  be  directed. 

A  man  of  mature  years  can  find  no  happier  occasion  than  that  which 
permits  him  to  stand  face  to  face  with  young  and  ardent  searchers  after 
knowledge.  The  student  is  always  an  object  of  interest.  His  presence 
is  an  inspiration,  and  his  face  an  open  book  on  which  are  written  a  hope 
and  a  prophecy.  This  occasion,  young  ladies  and  gentlemen,  commem- 
orative of  the  great  work  of  the  founder  of  this  college,  is  a  fitting  time 
for  laying  the  foundation  of  a  noble  career.  The  scholar,  if  he  be  wor- 
thy to  wear  the  name,  hears  every  day  a  call  to  be  consecrated,  feels  in 
every  hour  the  baptism  of  a  higher  life. 

It  would,  perhaps,  be  more  in  harmony  with  the  times,  if  I  should 
speak  to  you  on  some  theme  of  immediate  and  pressing  importance. 
Such  themes  there  are;  and  I  beg  of  you  to  believe  it  is  not  because  J 
underestimate  them  that  I  have  chosen  to  ask  you  to  rest  for  a  little 
while  in  a  serener  air.  The  hungry  problems  of  to-day  will  have  their 
hearing  without  asking  permission  of  you  or  me.  The  age  is  restless; 
it  is  self-assertive;  it  is  pleased  with  the  sound  of  its  own  voice  and  con- 
fident in  the  strength  of  its  own  arm.  And  yet  in  its  heart  there  is  a 
profound  sorrow.  When  men  turn  their  minds  persistently  to  social  and 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  47 

economic  questions;  when  labor  is  dissatisfied  and  capital  alarmed;  when 
the  prices  of  food  and  the  mystery  of  supply  and  demand  occupy  their 
thoughts  by  night  and  by  day,  we  may  be  sure  that  something  is  out  of 
place  in  the  machinery  we  call  civilization. 

But  of  these  things  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  speak.  I  allude  to  them 
because,  as  it  seems  to  me,  every  true  heart  must  be  deeply  sensible  of 
their  importance  and  must  constantly  feel  how  dark  a  shadow  they  cast 
on  sad  and  discontented  lives.  But  this  hour  is  dedicated  to  the  young, 
the  ambitious,  the  joyous  and  the  generous;  and  so  I  shall  ask  you  to  an- 
other field,  where,  perhaps,  we  can  gather  some  hints,  which  shall  also 
be  helps,  for  the  journey  upon  which  you  have  entered. 

You  do  not,  I  presume,  call  yourselves  philosophers,  but  you  are 
probably  aware  that  every  man  of  my  age  thinks  he  is  one.  It  is  this 
opinion  which  gives  to  old  men  that  air  of  condescension,  that  tone  of 
gentle  patronage,  as  if  to  say,  "  See  how  much  I  know  about  life 
and  its  duties!"  But  I  have  noticed  on  youthful  faces  at  such  times  a 
painful  look  of  inquiry,  as  if  they  would  ask,  "Well,  if  you  know  so  much 
why  have  you  so  little  to  show  for  it?  "  Ah!  that  is  the  question.  How 
many  centuries  is  it  since  Plato  was  writing  those  immortal  dialogues 
which  have  bewitched  the  minds  of  men  from  his  age  to  ours,  but  have 
left  us  still  struggling  to  make  knowledge  and  conduct  go  hand  in 
hand,  and  wisdom  and  character  true  reflections  of  each  other.  Nothing 
is  so  easy  as  to  state  sound  ethical  doctrines,  and  nothing  so  hard  as 
to  live  up  to  them.  I  suppose  that  more  than  one-half  the  literature 
of  the  world  consists  of  good  advice;  the  rest  is  the  story  of  its  suc- 
cess or  failure.  Innumerable  hands  have  traced  the  roads  that  lead 
to  happiness  and  peace,  but  how  few  there  be  who  have  not  missed  the 
way. 

I  shall  summon  you  to-night  to  a  course  of  living  which  is  filled  with 
inspiring  promises;  but  when  I  think  of  the  mistakes  you  will  probably 
make,  and  of  those  I  have  certainly  made,  my  lips  almost  refuse  to  speak 
and  I  can  only  stammer  as  did  George  Eliot's  Theophrastus  Such,  when  he 
said  to  his  hearers,  "  Dear  blunderers,  I  am  one  of  you."  Some  of  you 
will,  perhaps,  never  be  wiser  than  you  are  now.  I  wish  I  could  be  sure 
you  would  never  be  less  wise.  It  is  one  of  the  truths  I  implicitly  be- 
lieve, that  the  saddest  mistake  men  make  is  not  by  failing  to  learn,  but  by 
foolishly  thinking  they  must  wrclearn;  by  giving  up  the  truer  charts  and 
guides,  the  clearer  stars  by  which,  they  sailed  in  youth. 


48  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


It  is  not  for  me  to  enter  the  domain  of  religion  nor  to  trench  upon 
that  ground  which  is  occupied  by  better  men  who  have  been  specially 
called  to  the  work.  I  speak  only  of  the  life  that  now  is.  And  this  is 
the  lesson  I  give  you:  Dwell  in  the  kingdom  of  light.  And  where  is 
that'kingdom?  Where  are  its  boundaries?  What  cities  are  builded 
within  it?  What  hills  and  plains  and  mountain  slopes  gladden  the  eyes 
of  its  possessors?  Be  patient  my  young  enthusiast.  Do  not  hasten  to 
search  for  it.  It  is  here.  The  kingdom  of  light,  like  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven^is  within  you. 

And  what  do  I  mean  by  the  kingdom  of  light?  I  mean  that  realm 
of  which  a  quaint  old  poet  sang  those  quaint  old  lines: 

"My  mind  to  me  a  kingdom  is, 
Such  perfect  joy  therein  I  find." 

I  mean  that  invisible  commonwealth  which  outlives  the  storms  of 
ages;  that  empire  more  ancient  than  the  east;  that  state  whose  arma- 
ments are  thoughts;  whose  weapons  are  ideas;  whose  trophies  are  the 
pages  of  the  world's  great  masters.  The  kingdom  of  light  is  the  king- 
dom of  the  intellect,  of  the  imagination,  of  the  heart,  of  the  spirit  and 
the  things  of  the  spirit.  And  why,  perhaps  you  will  ask,  do  you  make 
this  appeal  to  us,  who  as  students,  as  members  of  the  fraternity  of  let- 
ters, are  already  dedicated  to  high  purposes,  and  enrolled  among  those 
who  stand  for  the  nobler  and  better  side  of  human  life?  Take  it  not 
amiss  if  I  tell  you  frankly,  I  do  not  feel  sure  that  you  are;  and  besides, 
if  you  will  pardon  my  plainness  of  speech,  I  must  remind  you  that  not 
all  who  stand  in  the  ranks  to-day  will  be  found  there  a  dozen  years  hence; 
not  all  who  start  with  the  column  follow  the  colors  through  the  after- 
noon of  the  march. 

Why  do  you  become  students?  Why  are  you  members  of  these  so- 
cieties that  cultivate  art  and  eloquence  and  keep  your  hearts  fresh  with 
the  dew  of  the  humanities?  Some  there  are,  I  fear,  who  look  upon  edu- 
cation simply  as  a  weapon  that  will  give  them  an  advantage  in  what  we 
call  the  battle  of  life.  If  this  be  your  motive,  you  are  not  in  the  King- 
dom. For,  while  knowledge  is  a  tremendous  force,  and  gives  its  possess- 
or a  great  advantage  over  his  unskilled  adversary,  yet  it  is  more  than 
this;  it  must  be  more,  or  it  is  hardly  worth  having.  Its  true  value  is  that 
it  is  a  stimulus  to  your  own  betterment,  an  incentive;  and,  believe  me,  it 
is  also  a  reward.  We  must  learn  to  pitch  our  lives  to  that  grand  key- 
note in  one  of  Matthew  Arnold's  sonnets: 

"The  aids  to  noble  life  are  all  within." 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  49 


There  is  another  reason  why  I  make  this  appeal  to  you.  In  the  in- 
tellectual as  well  as  the  theological  world,  there  is  a  tendency  to  back- 
sliding; that  fatal  weakness  which  turns  the  feet  backward  and  down- 
ward to  the  lowlands  of  gloom  and  despair.  The  young  are  almost  al- 
ways heroic.  But  the  blood  grows  thin  with  age,  and  the  resolute  heart 
timid  and  fearful.  At  twenty  you  gaze  upon  the  planets  in  the  upper 
sky;  but  at  forty,  perhaps,  you  will  be  groping  wearily  along  by  some 
pallid  light  your  own  weak  hands  have  kindled.  The  tempter  marches 
side  by  side  with  the  every  human  soul.  And  this  ordeal  which  comes 
to  all  will  come  to  you.  In  your  ear  there  will  be  whisperings  of  a  ca- 
reer; of  a  life  not  troubled  by  youthful  traditions;  of  an  existence  which 
takes  no  thought  to  separate  the  things  that  are  God's  from  the  things 
that  are  Mammon's.  Whoever  the  tempter  may  be,  he  is  your  enemy. 
He  is  your  enemy  because  he  has  told  you  what  is  not  true,  and  what, 
thank  Heaven!  never  can  be  true.  Human  life,  if  it  is  to  be  better  than 
that  of  the  brutes,  must  be  consecrated  to  something  higher  than  itself. 

I  have  appealed  to  you  for  what  I  have  called  the  intellectual  life. 
By  the  intellectual  life  I  mean  that  course  of  living  which  recognizes  al- 
ways and  without  ceasing,  the  infinite  value  of  the  mind;  which  gives  to 
its  cultivation  a  constant  and  enthusiastic  devotion;  which  in  good  and 
evil  days  clings  to  it  with  growing  and  abiding  love.  I  beg  of  you  not 
to  suppose  that  it  is  based  upon  a  college  diploma,  or  that  it  is  con- 
fined to  what  is  known  as  the  learned  professions — law,  medicine  ani 
theology;  for  it  is  sadly  true  that  many  who  are  enrolled  in  their  ranks 
have  not  the  slightest  kinship  with  an  intellectual  life. 

The  Kingdom  of  Light  is  open  to  all  who  seek  the  light.  This  may 
seem  a  mere  truism,  since  everyone  admits  the  superiority  of  the  mental 
over  the  physical  nature.  But  that  is  where  the  danger  lies.  All  admit 
it,  and  how  very  few  act  upon  it.  How  many  men  and  women  do  you 
know,  who,  after  they  have,  as  the  phrase  goes,  finished  their  education, 
ever  give  it  another  serious  thought?  They  have  no  time;  no  time  to 
live,  but  only  to  exist.  Do  not  misunderstand  me:  I  do  not  expect,  nor 
do  I  think  it  possible,  that  the  great  majority  of  people  can  make  intel- 
lectual improvement  their  first  and  only  aim.  God's  wisdom  has  made 
the  law  that  we  must  dig  and  delve,  must  work  with  the  hands  and  bend 
the  back  to  the  burden  that  is  laid  upon  it.  We  must  have  bread;  but 
'how  inexpressibly  foolish  it  is  to  suppose  that  we  can  live  by  bread 
alone.  Granting  all  that  can  be  claimed  for  lack  of  time;  for  the  food 
and  clothing  to  be  bought,  and  the  debts  to  be  paid,  the  truth  remains — 


50  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS' 


and  I  beg  you  to  remember  it — the  person  who  allows  his  mental  and 
spiritual  nature  to  stagnate  and  decay,  does  so,  not  for  want  of  time,  but 
for  want  of  inclination.  The  farm,  the  shop  and  the  office  are  not  such 
hard  masters  as  we  imagine.  We  yield  too  easily  to  their  sway,  and  set 
them  up  as  rulers  when  they  ought  to  be  servants.  There  is  no  voca- 
tion, absolutely  none,  that  cuts  off  entirely  the  opportunities  for  intel- 
lectual development.  For  my  part  I  would  rather  have  been  Charles 
Lamb  than  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  his  influence  in  the  world  is  in- 
calculably the  greater  of  the  two.  And  yet  he  was  but  a  clerk  in  the 
India  House,  poor  in  pocket,  but  rich  beyond  measure  in  his  very  pover- 
ty, whose  jewels  are  not  in  the  goldsmith's  list.  The  problem  of  life  is 
to  rightly  adjust  the  prose  to  the  poetry;  the  sordid  to  the  spiritual;  the 
common  and  selfish  to  the  high  and  benificent,  forgetting  not  that  these 
last  are  incomparably  the  more  precious. 

Modern  life  is  a  startling  contradiction.  Never  were  colleges  so 
numerous,  so  prosperous,  so  richly  endowed  as  now.  Never  were  public 
schools  so  well  conducted,  or  so  largely  patronized.  But  yet,  wkat 
Carlyle  calls  "  the  mechanical  spirit  of  the  age  "  is  upon  us.  The  com- 
mercial spirit  too,  is  with  us,  holding  its  head  so  high  that  timid  souls 
are  frightened  at  its  pretensions.  It  is  the  scholar's  dutv  to  set  his  face 
resolutely  against  both. 

I  can  never  be  the  apostle  of  despair.  The  colors  in  the  morning 
and  the  evening  sky  are  brilliant  yet.  But  I  fear  the  scholar  is  not  the 
force  he  once  was,  and  will  again  be  when  the  nineteenth  century,  or  the 
next  one,  gets  through  its  carnival  of  invention  and  construction.  We 
have  culture;  what  we  need  is  the  love  of  culture.  We  have  knowledge; 
but  our  prayer  should  be:  Give  us  the  love  of  knowledge.  I  may  be 
wrong,  but  I  sometimes  wish  Nature  would  be  more  stingy  of  her  secrets. 
She  has  given  them  out  with  so  lavish  a  hand  that  some  men  think  the 
greatest  thing  in  the  world  is  to  persuade  her  to  work  in  some  newly  in- 
vented harness.  Edison  and  the  other  wizards  of  science  have  almost 
succeeded  in  making  life  automatic.  Its  chord  is  set  to  a  minor  key. 
Plain  living  and  high  thinking,  that  once  went  together,  are  transformed 
into  high  living  and  very  plain  thinking.  The  old-time  simplicity  of 
manners,  the  modest  tastes  of  our  fathers,  have  given  way  to  the  clang 
and  clash,  the  noise  and  turbulence  that  characterize  the  age.  We  know 
too  much;  and  too  little.  We  know  evolution;  but  who  can  tell  us  when, 
or  how,  or  why,  it  came  to  be  the  law?  We  accept  it  as  a  great  scien- 
tific truth,  and  as  such  it  should  be  welcomed.  But  life  has  lost  some- 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


thing  of  its  zest,  some  of  the  glory  that  used  to  be  in  it,  since  we  were 
told — though  I  do  not  believe  it — that  mind  is  only  an  emanation  of 
matter,  a  force  or  principle  mechanically  produced  by  molecular  motion 
within  the  brain.  When  the  telephone  burst  upon  us  a  few  years  ago, 
the  world  was  delighted  and  amazed.  And  yet  we  were  not  needing 
telephones  half  as  much  so  we  were  needing  men;  men,  who,  by  living 
above  the  common  level,  should  exalt  and  dignify  human  life.  I  some- 
times think  it  wise  to  close  the  patent  office  in  Washington,  and  to  say 
to  the  tired  brains  of  the  inventors,  "Rest  and  be  refreshed."  We  hurry 
on  to  new  devices  which  shall  be  ears  to  the  deaf,  and  eyes  to  the  blind, 
and  feet  to  the  halt;  but  meantime  the  poems  are  unwritten,  and  hearts 
that  are  longing  for  one  strain  of  the  music  they  used  to  hear  are  told  to 
be  satisfied  with  the  great  achievements  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
wisest  of  the  Greeks  taught  that  the  ideal  is  the  only  true  real;  and  Em- 
erson, our  American  seer,  who  sent  forth  from  Concord  his  inspiring 
oracles,  taught  the  same.  I  may  be  wrong,  but  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  neither  hereafter,  nor  here,  does  salvation  lie  in  wheat,  or  corn,  or 
iron. 

Again  I  must  plead  that  you  will  take  my  words  as  I  mean  them. 
I  do  not  mean  to  preach  a  gospel  of  mere  sentiment,  nor  of  an  inane  im- 
practicable dilettanteism.  The  Lord  put  it  in  my  way  to  learn,  long  ago, 
that  we  cannot  eat  poetry,  or  art  and  sunbeams.  And  yet  I  hold  it 
true,  now  and  always,  that  life  without  these  things  is  shorn  of  more 
than  half  its  value.  The  ox  and  his  master  differ  little  in  dignity,  if 
neither  rises  above  the  level  of  the  stomach  and  the  manger. 

The  highest  use  of  the  mind  is  not  mere  logic,  the  almost  mechani- 
cal function  of  drawing  conclusions  from  facts.  Even  lawyers  do  that; 
and  so  also,  to  some  extent  as  naturalists  tell  us,  do  the  horse  and  the 
dog.  The  human  intellect  is  best  used  when  its  possessor  suffers  it  to 
reach  out  beyond  its  own  environment  into  the  realm  where  God  has 
placed  truth  and  beauty  and  the  influences  that  make  for  righteousness. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  common  or  humdrum  life  unless  we  make  it 
so  ourselves.  The  rainbow  and  the  rose  give  their  colors  to  all  alike.  The 
sense  of  beauty  that  is  born  in  every  soul  pleads  for  permission  to  remain 
there.  Cast  it  out,  and  not  all  the  skill  of  Edison  can  replace  it. 

It  is  the  imagination,  or  perhaps  I  should  say  the  imaginative  faculty, 
that  most  largely  separates  man  from  the  lower  animals,  and  which  also 
divides  the  higher  from  the  lower  order  of  men.  We  all  respect  the 
multiplication  table,  and  find  in  it  about  the  only  platform  upon  which 


52  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


we  can  agree  to  stand;  but  he  would  be  a  curiously  incomplete  man  to 
whose  soul  it  could  bring  the  rapture  that  comes  from  reading  "  Hamlet" 
or  "  In  Memoriam."  The  thoughts  that  console  and  elevate  are  not 
those  the  world  calls  practical.  Even  in  the  higher  walks  of  science, 
where  the  mind  enlarges  to  the  scope  of  Newton's  and  Kepler's  great 
discoveries,  the  demonstrated  truth  is  not  the  whole  truth,  nor  the  best 
truth.  As  Prof.  Everett,  of  Harvard,  has  finely  said  in  a  recent  work, 
"  science  only  gives  us  hints  of  what,  by  a  higher  method,  we  come  to 
know.  The  astronomer  tells  us  he  has  swept  the  heavens  with  his  tele- 
scope and  found  no  God."  But  "  the  eye  of  the  soul "  outsweeps  the  tel- 
escope, and  finds,  not  only  in  the  heavens  but  everywhere,  the  presence 
that  is  eternal.  The  reverent  soul  seeking  for  the  power  that  makes  for 
righteousness,  will  not  find  it  set  down  in  scientific  formula.  I  hold  it 
to  be  the  true  office  of  education  to  stimulate  the  higher  intellectual  fac- 
ulties; to  give  the  mind  something  of  that  perfection  which  is  found  in 
finely  tuned  instruments  that  need  only  to  be  touched  to  give  back  noble 
and  responsive  melody.  There  is  a  music  that  has  never  been  named; 
and  yet  so  deep  a  meaning  has  it  that  the  very  stars  keep  time  to  its  ce- 
lestial rhythm. 

"  There's  not  the  smallest  orb  which  thou  beholds't, 
But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 
Still  quiring  to  the  young-eyed  cherubim; 

Such  harmony  is  in  immortal  souls." 

I  do  not  claim  that  scholarship,  as  it  is  commonly  understood,  schol- 
arship merely  as  such,  can,  or  does,  open  the  gates  of  the  invisible  world, 
or  open  your  hearts  to  the  beauty  that  is  everywhere.  But  I  do  claim 
that  in  so  far  as  it  falls  short  of  this,  in  so  far  as  it  hinders  or  obstructs, 
or  diverts  you  from  it,  it  has  failed  of  its  purpose.  This  college  which 
you  rightly  love  and  cherish;  this  college  and  the  other  institutions  of 
learning  throughout  the  country,  do  a  good  work  when  they  teach  you 
facts,  and  how  to  apply  them;  but  they  do  a  greater  and  better  work 
when  they  fill  the  hearts  of  their  students  with  a  consuming  love  for  the 
things  that  cannot  be  computed,  nor  reckoned  nor  measured.  In  the 
daily  papers  you  may  read  the  last  quotations  of  stocks  and  bonds;  but 
once  upon  a  time  a  little  band  of  listeners  heard  the  words,  "Are  not  two 
sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing?"  and  went  away  with  a  lesson  whose 
meaning  Wall  street  has  yet  to  learn. 

And  now  you  are  asking,  "  Do  you  expect  us  to  earn  money  by  fol- 
lowing these  shadowy  and  intangible  sentiments,  which,  however  noble, 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  53 


are  not  yet  current  at  the  store  and  market?  We  must  eat  though  po- 
etry and  art  and  music  perish  from  the  earth."  Yes,  so  it  would  seem, 
but  only  seem.  I  cannot  tell  you  why,  but  I  am  sure  that  he  who  remem- 
bers that  something  divine  in  him  is  mixed  with  the  clay,  shall  find  the 
way  opened  for  both  the  divine  and  the  earthly.  You  will  not  starve  for 
following  the  Light.  But  I  beg  of  you  to  remember  that  this  is  not  a 
question  of  incomes  or  profits.  The  things  I  plead  for  are  not  set  down 
in  ledgers.  How  hard  to  think  of  the  unselfish  and  the  ultimate,  in- 
stead of  the  personal  and  immediate!  Even  unto  Jesus  they  came  and 
inquired,  "Who  is  first  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven?"  It  is  not  strange 
then  that  we  do  not  willingly  give  up  personal  advantages  here.  But  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Light,  in  the  life  I  am  asking  you  to  lead,  nothing  can 
be  taken  from  you  that  can  be  compared  with  what  you  will  receive.  It 
is  quite  likely  you  may  be  poor,  though  I  am  afraid  you  will  not  be,  for 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  no  man  is  safe  from  sudden  wealth;  but  a 
worse  calamity  could  befall  you  than  poverty.  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  as 
Renan  has  said,  was,  next  to  Jesus,  the  sweetest  soul  that  ever  walked 
this  earth,  and  he  condemned  himself  to  hunger  and  rags.  I  do  not  ad- 
vise you  to  follow  him  through  the  lonely  forest,  and  into  the  shaded 
glen  where  the  birds  used  to  welcome  him  to  be  their  friend  and  compan- 
ion; but  I  do  most  assuredly  think  it  better  to  live  as  he  did,  on  bread 
and  water  and  the  cresses  that  grew  by  the  mountain  spring,  than  to 
give  up  the  glory  and  the  joy  of  the  higher  life.  In  the  Kingdom  of 
Light  there  are  friendships  of  inestimable  value;  friendships  that  are  rest 
unto  the  body  and  solace  to  the  soul  that  is  troubled.  When  Socrates 
was  condemned,  how  promptly  and  how  proudly  his  spirit  rose  to  meet 
the  decree  of  the  judges,  as  he  told  them  of  the  felicity  he  should  find 
in  the  change  that  would  give  him  the  opportunity  of  listening  to  the 
enchanting  converse  of  Orpheus  and  Musaeus  and  Hesiod  and  Homer. 
Such  compansionship  is  ours  through  the  instrumentality  of  books. 
Here,  even  in  this  western  land,  the  worthies  of  every  age  will  come  to 
your  firesides;  will  travel  with  you  on  the  distant  journey;  will  abide 
with  you  wherever  your  lot  may  be  cast.  And  the  smaller  the  orbit  in 
which  you  move,  the  more  contracted  the  scale  of  your  personal  relation, 
the  more  valuable  and  the  more  needful  are  those  sweet  relationships 
which  James  Martineau  so  aptly  calls  "  the  friendships  of  history."  In 
a  strain  of  unrivaled  elevation  of  thought  and  purity  of  language,  he  says: 
"He  that  cannot  leave  his  workshop  or  his  village,  let  him  have  his 
passport  to  other  centuries,  and  find  communion  in  a  distant  age;  it  will 


54  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


enable  him  to  look  up  into  those  silent  faces  that  cannot  deceive,  and 
take  the  hand  of  solemn  guidance  that  will  never  mislead  or  betray. 
The  ground-plot  of  a  man's  own  destiny  may  be  closely  shut  in,  and  the 
cottage  of  his  rest  small;  but  if  the  story  of  this  Old  World  be  not  quite 
strange  to^him — if  he  can  find  his  way  through  its  vanished  cities  to  hear 
the  pleadings  of  justice  or  watch  the  worship  of  the  gods;  if  he  can  visit 
the  battlefields  where  the  infant  life  of  nations  has  been  baptized  in 
blood;  if  he  can  steal  into  the  prisons  where  the  lonely  martyrs  have 
waited  for  their  death;  if  he  can  walk  in  the  garden  or  beneath  the  porch 
where  the  lovers  of  wisdom  discourse,  or  be  a  guest  at  the  banquet  where 
the  wine  of  their  high  converse  passes  around;  if  the  experience  of  his 
own  country  and  the  struggles  that  consecrate  the  very  soil  beneath  his 
feetpre  no  secret  to  him,  and  he  can  listen  to  Latimer  at  Paul's  Cross, 
and  tend  the  wounded  Hampden  in  the  woods  of  Chalgrove,  and  gaze, 
as  upon  familiar  faces,  at  the  portraits  of  More  and  Bacon,  of  Vane  and 
Cromwell,  of  Owen,  Fox  and  Baxter — he  consciously  belongs  to  a  grander 
life  than  could  be  given  by  territorial  possession;  he  venerates  an  ances- 
try auguster  than  a  race  of  kings;  and  is  richer  in  the  sources  of  charac- 
ter than  many  a  merchant  prince  or  railway  monarch.  Hence  the  ad- 
vantage which  human  studies  possess  over  every  other  form  of  science; 
the  sympathy  with  man  over  the  knowledge  of  nature." 

Some  there  are,  no  doubt,  who  believe  that  intellectual  culture  does 
not  make  men  better  or  happier,  and  that  the  conscience  and  moral  fac- 
ulties are  set  apart  from  merely  mental  attributes.  But  surely  you  have 
not  accepted  such  a  false  and  narrow  view.  Unless  colleges  are  a  fool- 
ish and  expensive  luxury;  unless  civilization  is  worthless;  unless  the  cen- 
turies that  have  witnessed  the  upward  stride  of  humanity  have  been 
wasted;  unless  the  savage,  chattering  incantations  to  his  fetich,  is  a  nobler 
product  of  the  race  than  a  Milton,  a  Wilberforce,  an  Emerson  or  a  Low- 
ell, then  heart  and  mind,  morality  and  education  do  go  together  in  true 
and  loyal  companionship.  The  trouble  of  to-day,  as  I  have  tried  to  show, 
is  not  that  we  have  too  much  culture,  but  too  much  bending  of  the  knee 
to  purely  material  results;  too  much  worship  of  the  big  and  not  enough 
of  the  great.  I  live  in  hope  that  the  students  of  Knox  College  will  help 
to  correct  this  evil.  I  must,  however,  confess  that  when  I  see  young 
men  and  women  going  out  from  their  college  life  into  that  other  and  far 
different  one  that  awaits  them,  I  always  feel  a  little  twinge  of  pain,  a 
premonition  of  danger,  a  fear  that  in  spite  of  all  their  high  resolves,  the 
demon  of  the  nineteenth  century  will  lead  them  captive.  And  that  is 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  55 


what  I  meant  when  I  spoke  of  backsliding.  The  Kingdom  of  Light  is 
not  as  populous  as  it  would  be  if  all  who  once  set  their  faces  thither- 
ward had  pressed  forward  without  turning. 

It  will  be  the  fate  of  most  of  you  to  work  with  hand  and  brain; 
but  do  not  forget  that  even  in  this  short  life  a  successfully  conducted 
bank,  or  a  bridge  that  you  have  built,  or  a  lawsuit  you  have  won,  have 
in  themselves  little  of  special  significance  or  value.  Very  common 
men  have  done  all  these  things.  When  I  hear  the  glorification  of  the 
last  twenty  years,  of  the  fields  subdued,  the  roads  built,  the  fortunes 
accumulated,  the  factories  started,  I  say  to  myself,  all  these  are  good, 
but  not  good  enough  that  we  should  make  ourselves  hoarse  with  huz- 
zas, or  that  we  should  suppose  for  a  moment  they  belong  to  the  high- 
er order  of  achievements.  Sometimes,  too,  when  I  hear  the  noisy 
clamor  over  some  great  difficulty  that  has  been  conquered,  I  think  of 
James  Wolfe  under  the  walls  of  Quebec,  repeating  sadly  those  solemn 
lines  of  Gray's  Elegy: 

"The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  pow'r, 
And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave, 
Await  alike  th'  inevitable  hour, 
The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave." 

And  I  think  also  how  he  turned  to  his  officers  with  that  pathetic 
prevision  of  the  death  that  was  to  come  to-morrow  on  the  Heights  of 
Abraham,  and  said,  "  I  would  rather  have  written  *that  poem  than  to 
take  Quebec."  And  he  was  right. 

Indeed,  if  we  but  knew  it,  the  citadel  that  crowns  the  mountain's 
brow,  nay,  the  mountains  themselves,  ancient,  rugged,  motionless,  are 
but  toys  compared  with  the  silent,  invisible,  but  eternal  structure  of 
God's  greatest  handiwork,  the  mind. 

I  pray  you  remember  there  is,  if  you  will  search  for  it,  something 
ennobling  in  every  vocation;  in  every  enterprise  which  engages  the  ef- 
forts of  man.  Do  you  think  Michael  Angelo  reared  the  dome  and 
painted  those  immortal  frescoes  simply  because  he  had  a  contract  to  do 
so?  Was  the  old  soldier  who  died  at  Marathon  or  Gettysburg  thinking 
of  the  wages  the  state  had  promised  him?  Be  assured,  young  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  that  whatever  fate  is  to  befall  you,  nothing  so  bad  can 
come  as  to  sink  into  that  wretched  existence  where  everything  is  for- 
gotten but  the  profit  of  the  hour:  the  food,  the  raiment,  the  handful  of 
silver,  the  ribbon  to  wear  on  the  coat.  It  is  but  an  old  story  I  am 
telling  you;  but  I  console  myself  with  the  reflection  that  it  cannot  be 


56  KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY. 


told  too  often,  and  only  by  telling  is  it  kept  fresh  in  the  memory  and 
in  the  heart.  I  wish  I  knew  the  secret  of  words.  Then  would  I  make 
you  see  the  surpassing  value  of  the  life  I  have  tried  to  portray.  I  wish 
I  knew  the  secret  of  art.  Then  would  I  paint  a  picture  that  should  be 
the  image  of  joy  and  beauty,  and  behind  the  canvas,  not  seen,  but  known 
by  the  subtle  intuitions  of  the  mind,  there  should  throb  the  living  heart 
of  an  ideal  life.  Then  would  I  ask  you  to  be  true  to  that  ideal,  know- 
ing that  it  can  never  be  false  to  you.  The  world  will  go  on  buying 
and  selling,  hoping  and  fearing,  loving  and  hating,  and  you  will  be  in 
the  throng;  but  in  God's  name  turn  not  away  from  the  light,  nor  from 
the  kingdom  that  is  in  the  midst  of  the  light. 

You  are  young,  you  have  faith;  but  I  dare  not  ask  you  how  much. 
For  faith,  however  strong  it  may  be,  has  its  tides;  and  many  a  gallant 
bark  has  gone  down  in  sight  of  the  coast  that  seemed  to  beckon  with 
its  welcoming  smiles.  I  consider  that  life  wrecked,  though  it  can  count 
its  millions  and  has  built  cities  and  removed  mountains,  if  it  has  lost 
sight  of  the  upper  lights.  You  think  no  such  fate  can  come  to  you; 
but  so  has  thought  every  high-souled  youth  from  the  age  of  Pericles  to 
the  present. 

In  every  street  shadows  are  walking  who  were  once  like  you,  young, 
hopeful  and  confident.  Nay!  they  are  not  shadows;  but  ghosts,  dead, 
years  ago,  in  everything  but  the  mere  physical  portion  of  existence. 
They  go  through  the  regular  operations  of  trade  and  traffic,  the  office 
and  the  court;  but  they  are  not  living  men.  They  are  but  bones  and 
skeletons  rattling  along  in  a  melancholy  routine,  which  has  in  it  neither 
life  nor  the  spirit  of  life.  It  is  a  sad  picture,  but  saddest  because  it  is 
true.  They  knew  what  happy  days  were,  when  like  you,  they  walked 
in  pleasant  paths  and  felt  in  their  hearts  the  freshness  of  the  spring.  But 
contact  with  the  world  was  too  much  for  them.  Hesitation  and  doubt 
drove  out  loyalty  and  faith.  They  listened  to  the  voice  of  worldly  wis- 
dom as  Othello  listened  to  lago,  and  the  end  of  the  story  is: 

"Put  out  the  light,  and  then, — put  out  the  light." 

I  appeal  to  the  students  of  Knox  College  to  be  worthy  of  its  great 
founder.  You  have,  by  your  enrollment  here,  been  called  and  num- 
bered with  the  elect.  You  are  hostages  to  art  and  letters;  to  high 
aims  and  noble  destinies.  You  may  be  false,  but  if  some  are  not  faith- 
ful, truth  and  liberty  and  the  best  of  civilization  will  be  lost,  or  in 
danger  of  being  lost.  In  every  ship  that  sails  there  must  be  some  to 


KNOX  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY.  57 


stay  by  the  craft;  some  to  speak  the  word  of  cheer;  some  to  soothe  the 
fears  of  the  timorous  and  affrighted.  When  Paul  was  journeying  to 
Italy  on  that  memorable  voyage  which  changed  the  destinies  of  the 
world,  the  mariners  were  frightened  as  the  storm  came  on,  and  were 
casting  the  boats  over  to  seek  safety  they  knew  not  whither;  but  Paul 
said  to  the  centurion  and  to  the  soldiers,  "Except  these  abide  ir  the 
ship  ye  cannot  be  saved." 

I  call  upon  the  students  of  Knox  College  to  stay  by  the  ship.  It 
is  because  I  believe  so  strongly  in  the  saving  power  of  the  intellectual 
life  upon  the  institutions  of  society,  and  upon  the  welfare  of  individu- 
als, that  I  have  urged  you  so  earnestly  to  be  loyal  to  it.  The  for- 
tunes of  science,  art,  literature  and  government  are  indissolubly  linked 
with  it.  The  center  and  shrine  of  the  most  potent  influences  are  not 
the  seats  of  commerce  and  capital.  The  village  of  Concord,  where  Em- 
erson, Hawthorne,  Alcott  and  Thoreau  lived,  was  in  their  day,  and  will 
long  continue  to  be,  a  greater  force  in  this  nation  than  New  York:,and 
Chicago  added  to  each  other. .  You  must  rest  in  the  assured  faith  that 
whoever  may  seem  to  rule,  the  thinker  is,  and  always  will  be,  the  mas- 
ter. He  can  well  afford  to  let  the  man  of  affairs  enjoy  his  dream  of 
dominion,  for  the  law  of  the  universe  is  that  all  things  must  serve  the 
silent  but  imperious  power  of  thought. 

Those  of  you  who  have  read  Auerbach's  great  novel  remember  the 
motto  from  Goethe  on  the  title  page: 

"On  every  height  there  lies  repose." 

Rest!  how  eagerly  we  seek  it!  How  sweet  it  is  when  we  are  tired 
of  the  fret  and  worry  of  life.  But  remember,  I  pray  you,  that  it  dwells 
above  the  level  in  the  serene  element  that  reaches  to  the  infinities.  Only 
there  is  heard  the  music  of  the  choir  invisible;  only  there  can  you  truly 
know  the  rest,  the  peace  and  joy  of  those  who  dwell  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Light. 


